Two weeks of strike action planned by Eden bin workers

Refuse workers in Eden will undertake almost two weeks of strike action after a proposed pay deal fell through.

The strike action will be taken by staff employed by Urbaser, the council’s waste and environmental services contractor in the Eden area, on Monday October 2 and will run until Friday October 13. 

Westmorland and Furness Council has stated it is "obviously disappointed" that strike action is being initiated after recent negotiations on a pay deal between the union and the contractor were unable to be resolved.

Andy Turner, regional operations manager at Urbaser, said: “The GMB Union has officially notified us of an impending strike at our Eden depot due to a pay dispute, scheduled to start on October 2 and running for two consecutive weeks.

"We hope to reengage in constructive discussions with GMB Union in the near future, but in the meantime we wish to reassure residents that our main priority remains the continuity of front-line services.”

This comes after a period of industrial action by refuse workers in Allerdale which resulted in an 8.3% pay increase for waste workers and a 13.6% increase for drivers wages.

Recycling or green waste collections in the Eden area will not be affected as these are provided under a different contract.

The action also does not impact waste, recycling or green waste collections in the Barrow or South Lakeland areas of Westmorland and Furness.

Council-operated recycling ‘Bring Sites’ and Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) will continue to open and operate as normal during the period of industrial action.