17 May 2019

A nearly two-year long dispute with Birmingham City Council has finally ended in the local authority agreeing to reverse changes that would have seen care workers lose up to £11,000 a year.

Over 200 of those working in the service, 96% of whom are women, have taken 82 days of strike action against the council to protest cuts to their hours in what is believed to be the longest dispute in West Midlands history.

Dave Prentis, General Secretary of Unison, which represented the workers, said the workers had "earned their right to celebrate a momentous victory".

"For well over a year they’ve fought against plans which put their jobs at risk and threatened massive pay cuts these low-paid workers could ill-afford.

"It’s been an incredibly difficult time for them. They’ve repeatedly taken strike action, not because they wanted to, but because they knew they had to.

"From the outset our whole union has stood with these care workers because their fight matters to all of us – as it matters to the communities these care workers serve.