Walking through Cathays the evidence of the bin strikes are unavoidable, with piles of green recycling bins and overflowing food waste bins outside every house. Fortunately, some of these bins were collected recently, but that does not mean that the strike is over. According to the Cardiff Council website, the UNITE union announced strikes up until Sunday the 26th of November. However, this does not mean that a month’s worth of our waste will be sitting on the street outside our houses as,the collections are a lot more infrequent. During the strikes, both general waste and food waste will be collected as normal, in an attempt to avoid leaving rotting food to attract rats and other vermin. However, the green recycling bags and the hygiene waste will now only be collected fortnightly with general waste with, garden waste collections cancelled. These strikes have made an already complicated waste system increasingly complex, leaving most students to just guess when their waste will be collected. Many people have resorted, due to confusion and lack of space, to just piling their rubbish on the side of the street. However, many other students have been threatened with fines for leaving waste out on days that it won’t be collected. To help make these complicated rules simpler, the Cardiff Council website has a page which tells you which bins you need to put out based on your postcode. To help further, there is an option to get this information emailed to the day you need to put the bins out, simplifying this complicated situation.
Whilst the bin strikes do cause an inconvenience to us as students, and makes the waste problem in Cathays significantly worse, there should be a focus upon why the strikes are happening. The members of UNITE in both Cardiff and Wrexham are striking over pay disputes. These strikes are continuing until the 26th of November due to an overwhelming majority vote to reject the pay increase of £1,925, offered by the local authorities. The Unite Wales Region Secretary, Peter Huges, has criticised Huw Thomas and Mark Pritchard (Council Leaders) as they ‘both employ chief executives who are earning salaries that are seven to nine times higher’ , in stark contrast to the salaries of UNITE union members. Every resident of Cardiff is experiencing the importance of the council workers collecting our rubbish, yet they are struggling to get the pay that they deserve. In a letter from the National Employers, in which they offer the pay rise of £1,925 and emphasise the importance of the 1.4 million people employed, they state that their offer is ‘full and final, [and] is fair in the current circumstances.’. This clash will have to be resolved, as Unite is openly willing to negotiate, in order for regular collections to resume