Fury as union boss in charge of Birmingham’s devastating bin strike had rubbish collected on time at home leafy suburb
A UNION boss directing a devastating bins strike had her rubbish collected while mountains of rotting waste piles up on the streets.
Left-wing firebrand Annmarie Kilcline lives 50 miles from the crippling industrial action she is spearheading in Birmingham.
She remains unaffected by the chaos caused by tons of refuse in Britain’s second largest city.
On Thursday, Ms Kilcline’s hubby Mark Labbett was pictured dutifully putting out their black wheelie bin.
And on Friday, refuse workers emptied it at their £600,000 detached home near Nottingham.
Meanwhile, residents in Birmingham face a fifth week surrounded by festering mounds of rubbish which are attracting hordes of rats.
Up to 20,000 tons are uncollected since binmen started all-out strikes on March 11 over wage cuts.
Council bosses have declared a major incident and warned it will take weeks to clear the streets.
Furious residents spoke of their anger after discovering Ms Kilcline — Unite’s West Midlands Regional Secretary — was unaffected.
Retired electrician Ron Allen, 69, said: “She’s not having to live with the consequences of what she’s doing. I wonder if she’s even been down to see the mess Birmingham has become. Some of the areas of the inner-city are just terrible.
“It’s all right when you are sitting in a different city, getting paid and having your bins collected but down here it stinks and you have rats getting into people’s houses.”
Care worker Kathy Day, 66, said: “Our Council Tax has gone up 17½ per cent in two years.
“Has she had that? All we’ve got to show for it is potholes and now bins overflowing. It’s madness.”
Ms Kilcline was unavailable for comment. But scrutiny of her role is increasing amid claims a deal between bin workers and Birmingham City Council was scuppered by Unite.
Some local union members are dissatisfied with how the dispute has been handled amid claims of an internal power struggle.
One source said: “Unions traditionally have been about the deal on behalf of their members.
“Instead, Unite and others seem to be in the grip of people for whom disruption, disputes and revolution are their priority.”
Unite dismissed the claims as “entirely without merit”.
Majid Mahmood, the city council’s environment chief, said it could take eight weeks to “get the clean-up where we want it to be” once its contingency plan involving 90 waste trucks a day is implemented.