“It’s unfortunate that we’ve had to resort to this measure, but we cannot accept a situation that causes harm and distress to the communities throughout Birmingham,” stated John Cotton, the leader of Birmingham City Council, in an announcement.

Photos taken by Reuters in Birmingham this month show mounds of uncollected rubbish overflowing from collection bins and dumpsters.

“The Birmingham council could readily settle this conflict, yet it appears determined to push forward with its agenda of demotions and pay reductions at any cost,” remarked Sharon Graham, secretary of Unite the Union, in a statement on Monday.

“If that involves spending far more than it would cost to resolve the strike fairly, they don’t seem to care.”

Those contractor pickups have been blocked by picketing workers.

In their statement on Monday, the city council claimed that the “daily blocking of our depots by pickets has meant that we cannot get our vehicles out to collect waste from residents.”

Declaring a major incident would allow the city to bypass the picket lines and clean the streets, the city council statement said.

The sanitation workers, meanwhile, claim that the city’s declaration amounts to “strike breaking”.

The British government is aware of the strike, Minister of Communities Jim McMahon said in a speech to Parliament on Monday.

“Well-established arrangements are in place for local areas to escalate issues where they do need support and the government is monitoring the situation closely,” McMahon said, according to British newswire service PA Media.

“If local leaders on the ground in Birmingham feel that tackling these issues goes beyond the resources available to them and they request national support,” McMahon continued, “then of course we stand ready to respond to any such request.”