Brighton & Hove city council and the GMB Union will meet later today (July 18) in an attempt to avert industrial action by refuse workers in the city.
Earlier this week, the Union announced it had issued industrial action notices to the council and would strike on 29 July, with more announced throughout August if talks are unsuccessful.
The dispute centres on the role of a union official at the depot run by the council’s in-house waste service Cityclean. The GMB union said action by its members was in response to “anti-union behaviour” by the city council.
Refuse workers in Brighton will stage a series of strikes unless a deal is struck
Talks have been ongoing for a number of weeks, but Mark Turner, GMB branch secretary, said these have not been successful.
“It’s been very much a case of one step forward two steps back by council officers in the meetings facilitated by ACAS, several times we thought that a settlement to the dispute was imminent as we seemed to agree on much more than divided us and that we were at the stage where simply changes to some wording in the working document was the only final stumbling block to avoid,” he said.
‘Disappointing’
A council spokesperson labelled the decision to strike “disappointing”, but said the council remains confident that it can resolve any outstanding issues.
“We’re very disappointed that the GMB has decided to issue dates for industrial action in two weeks’ time and running through August, including Pride weekend.
“We’re still fully committed to resolving any outstanding issues through the ACAS talks to ensure the service we provide for our residents and businesses is maintained and not disrupted.”
The post Brighton and GMB to meet over waste strikes appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
