UNITE was fined £265,000 today for breaching terms of an injunction imposed on the striking Birmingham bin workers.

But the union said it would simply pay out of money saved by reducing its affiliation fee to the Labour Party, with a Labour council’s attack on pay the cause of the dispute.

High Court judge Nerys Jefford’s ruling said members and/or union officials “persuaded themselves” that the council’s ban on blocking refuse trucks did not apply to areas near the city’s depots.

Unite admitted breaching the order and apologised in September 2025, two months after at first disputing the breaches with the city council.

Mrs Jefford rejected “the defendant’s submission that any of the admitted breaches were not deliberate and were the product of a misunderstanding.”

Unite was ordered to pay £170,000 towards the council’s costs as well as what the council said was the highest fine issued by the courts for this type of application.

The bin workers have been striking since January 2025 after the authority decided to cut their pay by up to £8,000.

Unite’s executive council voted to cut its affiliation fee to the party by 40 per cent (£580,000) as the strikers marked the first anniversary of all-out industrial action last week.

The union’s general secretary Sharon Graham slammed the council’s use of “Thatcher’s anti-union laws,” describing the fine as “yet another pathetic attempt to intimidate workers and it won’t work.

“Unite is very relaxed about the fine, every single penny will come out of Labour’s affiliation fee. So, Labour will be paying for this one and any others that come our way.”

The union remains ready to return to negotiations based on the “ballpark deal” brokered by the conciliation service Acas last May, a Unite spokesman said.

Council cabinet member Majid Mahmood said that the fine “will send a clear message about what is acceptable behaviour.”