New Council Leader rejects complacency claims and says ending bin strike is his first and most important priority

THE new Leader of Warrington Borough Council, Cllr Hans Mundry, has rejected opposition Tory claims that the council is being complacent over the ongoing bin strike, saying it is his top priority to end it.

It follows an open letter from Tory Cllr Mark Jervis, on behalf of the opposition group following Monday night’s full council meeting, when the ruling Labour group refused to condemn the strike action by the UNITE Union, in favour of regretting it.

Cllr Jervis wrote:

Dear Councillor Mundry
Open Letter on Ongoing Bin Strike
I would like to congratulate you on your appointment as Council Leader at Monday’s Full Council Meeting.
The most pressing issue for our residents at present is the ongoing Bin Strike by Unite.
There was a complete lack of focus and drift on this matter by the former Leader and his Cabinet on Monday.
There was little or no awareness of the challenges faced across the Town by all residents but particularly some of our more vulnerable residents who are most impacted by the Unite strike.
Communication from the Labour Cabinet has been poor and virtually non-existent.
Members and residents alike are not aware of the specific ongoing matters of local dispute with Unite after the national collective agreement on pay.
Measures to alleviate the growing environmental and public health risk from accumulating rubbish on our streets are also unclear.
Labour’s inability to resolve this dispute is all the more surprising given that around half of your Group, including yourself, are members of the Unite union.
Warrington needs a step change in approach.
In your new role as Council Leader, I would like to urge you to introduce strategic direction, urgency, focus and improved communication to bring about an early end and a resolution of this unfortunate dispute. The growing rubbish and public health problem across Warrington must also be tackled.
This dispute needs to be treated as a major incident and managed accordingly, day in day out.
The current apparent complacency needs to end for the sake of all our residents.
Yours sincerely
Mark Jervis

In response, Cllr Mundry said: “Finding a resolution to end the bin strikes is my first and most important priority. This must be done in a fair, legal and affordable way.
“As a Warrington resident myself I know the impact and disruption that the strikes are causing to our residents and businesses.
“As was made clear to all councillors who attended Full Council on Monday, we are taking continued urgent action to resolve the strike.
“The council’s Chief Executive has provided all council members with regular updates on the situation and we work continuously with our local media partners.
“To repeat what was said to councillors on Monday and for full transparency, we have made the following proposals to Unite, and the other Trade Unions, with the majority of proposals contingent on the industrial action ceasing:

•With regard to the current roles of Loader, Driver Loader, and Team Leader we have agreed to work with local Unite representatives and other Trade Unions on re-evaluating these roles via our job evaluation process. This has already started. We now need to conclude those discussions and we will submit the job descriptions for evaluation in line with our usual processes early in the New Year. We also agreed to consider the impact of the National Living Wage on gradings and differentials.
•We committed to an annual process of agreeing the operational arrangements for Christmas working in waste services with Unite and other Trade Unions, each year, with effect from 2024.
•We committed to look at the current use of agency staff in waste services and to develop a formal Agency Worker agreement.
•We offered to extend the contracts of current waste staff whose contracts are due to end this month through to December 2024 and to review whether a number of these contracts could eventually be made permanent.
•An offer was made to undertake a review of the scope of laundry allowances and to consider their introduction.
“As a council, we are committed to meaningful consultation and negotiations to respond to individual issues as they are raised. However, this must be done with all three unions – Unite, GMB and Unison – at the same time, as they represent the entire workforce.

He added: “We have arranged to meet this week with all Trade Unions including Unite to try to bring this dispute to an end and will keep our residents updated on this. I totally reject that we have been complacent in dealing with this industrial dispute.”

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