The council has ensured household waste collections are still made. But there have been no recycling collections since February. People have had to either hoard it, dispose of it with their household rubbish or make trips to the tip.
In Castle Vale, one of the biggest housing estates in Birmingham, there is little if any uncollected rubbish, with the authority managing to empty out the wheelie bins over the holiday period.
The Pioneer Group, landlord to more than half of Castle Vale’s residents, also has its team ensuring everything is kept clean and tidy.
Residents Connie Marshall and Marie Notarantonio were union members who went on strike in the 1970s, so sympathise with bin workers, but still want the strike to end.
“I just don’t understand it, you know for so long and… [it] hasn’t come to an agreement,” Marshall said.
“I think council and union reps need their heads banging together,” Notarantonio added.
The intermittent walk-out began over plans to downgrade some job roles, which Unite said would result in up to 170 workers facing an £8,000-a-year pay cut.
But the dispute escalated and an indefinite all-out strike began on 11 March, with picketers delaying crews from leaving waste depots to collect rubbish, before a High Court injunction was granted.