Birmingham workers of the Unite Union have been ordered to "end their strike immediately" after rejecting the city council's deal.Striking refuse workers have "overwhelmingly rejected" a partial deal offered by the Labour-run authority as the month-long strike continues to leave thousands of tonnes of rubbish piling up on streets.FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00And let's just start with that Birmingham bin strike.
00:03Obviously, it's becoming a public health risk, an enormous nuisance to local people.
00:08How does this end?
00:10Well, look, people have enough problems that they have to deal with
00:14without having to worry about where their bins are being collected.
00:17So this needs to end.
00:18And our message to Unite is really clear.
00:21Call off the strike, accept the deal that's on the table.
00:24It's a good deal.
00:25And that's what we ultimately believe needs to happen.
00:29Now, of course, the government's doing what it can.
00:33We have sent some army logistics people in to help with the navigation of this issue.
00:39There are councils from neighbouring areas who are supporting.
00:42There's some private sector involvement as well.
00:44But fundamentally, we want Unite to call off this strike.
00:49Sarah, I just want to know what you mean by a good deal.
00:52I may be wrong on this, but I'm hearing that they have to accept up to £8,000 less
00:58than they were working on before.
01:02Could you just explain to me why then that would be deemed to be a good deal?
01:06Well, look, I won't get into the weeds of it, as you would appreciate.
01:10My focus for the last period of time has been on steel as the Minister for Industry.
01:15But my colleagues are working really hard on resolving this situation
01:20and are clear that they think this is a good deal.
01:24Now, of course, we work with trade unions all the time.
01:27I've been working with Unite and GMB and Community Union on steel,
01:31and they've been absolutely brilliant in Scunthorpe,
01:34making sure we keep the show on the road.
01:36So very important relationships.
01:38But in this case, it's unacceptable that people are having to suffer in the way that they are.
01:43We've all seen the rubbish piling up.
01:45It's awful, and the strike needs to be suspended, and they need to come to a deal.