Hundreds of Liverpool Port workers are expected to down tools in a fresh bout of industrial action over an ongoing wage dispute next week.
Trade union Unite announced the latest strike timeline on Thursday, following the port workers’ recent 14-day industrial action. “Nearly 600 Liverpool port workers will take seven days of fresh strike action beginning on 11 October and ending on 17 October,” Unite said in a statement. Senior control room operators have now also voted to join the striking port workers who have until now included mainly dock workers and engineers, who downed tools on 19 September.
In addition, the port’s dock masters, shift managers and vessel traffic services officers are also now preparing to be balloted to possibly join the strike.
“The combined impact of so many roles striking means the entire port will literally become inoperable,” said Unite.
The union said the workers were angry at the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company’s (MDHC) pay offer of around 8.3 per cent, as the real rate of inflation was 12.3%, making the proposal an effective pay cut. The workers are also disputing MDHC’s alleged failure to honour its 2021 pay agreement. The agreement included the company not undertaking a promised pay review, which last happened in 1995, and failing to deliver on an agreement to improve shift rotas.
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said the firm was “hugely profitable” and should keep its promise to workers.
“The anger among MDHC’s staff at the greed of this hugely profitable firm and its billionaire owner John Whittaker reaches from one end of the company to the other. Our members will not back down and neither will Unite. MDHC needs to keep its previous pay promises and put forward a proper pay rise now,” said Graham.
MDHC, which made more than £30 million in profits in 2021, is part of Peel Ports and is owned by the Peel Group – based in the Isle of Man tax haven. Some of the Liverpool port dock masters are employed under Peel Ports Investments. The group’s majority owner, UK tycoon Whittaker, is worth more than £1.4 billion and is also based in the Isle of Man. Australian investment fund, Australian Super, is the group’s second-largest investor.
Unite said that Peel Ports – which is also the port authority for the Manchester Ship Canal, the River Medway, parts of the River Clyde, 12 Quays at Birkenhead and Heysham Port – has paid out around £300 million in dividends over the past five years. The highest paid Peel Ports director received pay and benefits totalling £4.5 million in 2021, up from £1.6 million in 2020.
Unite National Co-Ordinator for Free Ports, Steven Gerrard, said: “The disruption caused to the port of Liverpool and the supply lines that depend on it is entirely the fault of MDHC and Peel Ports. If even more staff walk out over the company’s insufficient pay offer, the entire port will literally become inoperable. The company can afford to put forward an offer our members can accept and must do so.”
