Bins boss: We have nothing else to offer

COUNCIL'S NEGOTIATIONS WITH UNION HAVE COME TO NOTHING

- JANE HAYNES

BIRMINGHAM City Council has ‘nothing else to put on the table’ to end the bin strike currently raging without risking a new wave of equal pay claims.

That could amount to a multi-million pound gamble with the city’s future.

Tough-talking council strategic director of operations Craig Cooper today claimed the union Unite has pitted the demands of just 17 disgruntled workers against the city’s 1.2 million residents, despite what he called a ‘fair offer’ to resolve the crisis.

He said the council has bent over backwards to accommodate the union but had ‘nothing else’ to offer. The union Unite, whose members are now on indefinite strike, said the council was holding the city to ransom, not the other way around.

Mr Cooper also claimed there was some truth behind rumours of a deal being almost over the line with local workers last week until Unite’s national representatives intervened.