Members of the GMB union who work for Urbaser Ltd who provide services in Penrith and the Eden area for Westmorland and Furness Council including the bin collection and street cleaning have voted to continue strike action over pay and conditions through into November.
The original two week strike was extended until the end of October and has now following a union members vote on Monday, again been extended until the 10th of November.
Urbaser has said that the company had met the majority of the unions initial demands but the GMB union has said it tabled five topics for discussion, but Urbaser was only prepared to discuss one.
Urbaser’s regional operations manager has said “Urbaser Ltd has been informed by the GMB Union that they intend to extend their strike action at our Eden depot for a further consecutive two weeks.
“While the strike continues, we remain committed to ensuring minimal disruption to our services and customers. As long as we can deploy our vehicles without any hindrance, we will continue to allocate resources on a daily basis.”
Police have reportedly been called out on multiple occasions after striking union members reportedly blocked access for the vehicles to leave the depo.
Westmorland and Furness Council have not issued any comment on the latest extension to the strikes effecting only households in the Penrith and Eden area, beyond the advice to continue to put blue bags out on normal collection day.
Some residents around Penrith are reporting having had no bins collected since the start of the strike action three weeks ago.
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