After three consecutive days of strikes having disrupted transport, particularly rail, it is the turn of the port of Felixstowe to be affected. A strike scheduled to last eight days began on Sunday August 21 at the UK’s largest cargo port, the latest in a series of industrial action across many sectors demanding better wages in the face of record inflation.
This is the first strike since 1989 for this port located in the east of England, which handles around four million containers a year. Some 1,900 members of the Unite union, including crane operators, machine operators and dockworkers, have walked off the job demanding wage hikes amid the UK’s cost of living crisis. Inflation reached 10.1% over one year in July and could exceed 13% in October, the highest level in a G7 country.
“£99m distributed to shareholders”
“Felixstowe Docks is extremely profitable. Latest figures show that in 2020 they made £61m [près de 72 millions d’euros] of profits »said Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham. “Its parent company, CK Hutchison Holding Ltd, is so wealthy that in the same year it distributed £99 million to its shareholders. So they can give Felixstowe workers a decent pay raise”she said.
For their part, Port of Felixstowe officials said “disappointed that Unite did not accept [leur] offers to call off the strike and come to the table for constructive discussions to find a solution”. The company said it offered a pay rise that it feels ” just “8% on average and close to 10% for the lowest paid employees.
The port “regrets the impact this action will have on UK supply chains” and claims to work with its customers to “limit disruption”.
A port source, however, told the PA news agency that the strikes would be a “inconvenience and not a disaster”saying the supply chain has been used to disruption since the pandemic.