The judgement explained how 22,000 tonnes of uncollected waste piled up across the city at the beginning of the strike, due to agency staff and non-striking employees being unable to drive trucks out of the Atlas, Lifford Lane and Perry Barr depots.
Despite an injunction being granted later that year, union members continued obstructing waste vehicles on roads about 500 metres to 1km away from the depots, the judgement continued.
Unite argued it genuinely believed the injunction only applied to protests in the immediate vicinity of the depots, not further along collection routes.
But the judge rejected that, finding the union’s culpability was high and that it had “persuaded themselves of their own spurious argument”.