Above Photo: The Edinburgh bin strike is due to continue until 30 August, coinciding with the city’s two festivals. PA.
Rubbish has started piling up in Edinburgh at the start of an 11-day strike by refuse workers over pay, with city residents being told to store rubbish in their houses and gardens.
All bin and recycling collections have been suspended in the Scottish capital for the duration of the strike, which began at 5am on Thursday and will continue until Tuesday 30 August.
Street cleaning and the removal of waste from public litter bins has also been cancelled, with all recycling centres also closed and flytipping reports going unanswered.
Edinburgh City Council’s official advice to residents is to “stock up on strong black bags” and store their extra rubbish in their gardens, garages or driveways.
This is despite the council leader, Cammy Day, claiming earlier this month that if the strike went ahead, the local authority had a “plan B” in place to deal with the disruption.
The strike, organised by the Unite and GMB unions, is in protest at a 3.5 per cent pay offer from council umbrella body Cosla, which has been rejected by members.
Picket lines were organised at waste and recycling centres throughout the capital on Thursday, with a rally held outside the City Chambers on the Royal Mile.
Unite branch convener Graeme Smith said: “Staff are feeling very angry about the pay offer. We were being offered 2 per cent originally, which is an insult.
“Cosla then came back five months later and increased that to 3.5 per cent. Again, not something we could even consider taking to the members during the cost of living crisis. So there’s a lot of anger.”
He said rubbish was already piling up on the Royal Mile, with other parts of the city also likely to be affected during the two festivals which run until the end of the month.
“Members can’t put food on the table. Come winter, they’ll be choosing between heating and eating. So that’s why we’ve been forced to take such dire measures,” Mr Smith added.
Edinburgh council leader Cammy Day attended the rally outside the City Chambers and warned that there would be disruption to bin collections for the whole fortnight.
Asked what he was doing to resolve the dispute, he said he had written to the Deputy First Minister and called for an earlier meeting of Cosla to discuss a new pay offer.
“None of us want strike action, but when we’ve got a Government failing to meet the demands of the workforce and Cosla leaders stretched for cash across every local authority in Scotland, we need them all to get around the table and find a solution.”
The strike in Edinburgh is the first in a wave of industrial action, with similar walkouts taking place across 14 other local authorities in Scotland from 24 to 31 August.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “As the employers, these pay negotiations are a matter for local authorities and unions – the Scottish Government has no formal role.
“We urge Cosla to urgently reconsider its position and match the Scottish Government’s additional £140m that would be required to increase the pay offer to 5 per cent.
“The Scottish Government must balance a fixed budget with very significant competing demands as a consequence of the cost of living crisis and the inaction of the UK Government.
“The main tax levers are set for the whole year and cannot be changed. With no power to borrow for this spend, the extra £140m has got to come from somewhere else within the budget and no more funding can be offered.”