Workers at the UK’s Felixstowe Port have downed tools for the second time in as many months over a wage dispute, again threatening to send shockwaves throughout the country’s supply chain.
The scheduled strike began on Tuesday morning (September 27), according to the BBC. The beginning of the new strike at Felixstowe coincides with ongoing strike at the port of Liverpool, meaning that more than 60 per cent of the UK’s container port capacity will be affected by industrial action.
Felixstowe Port’s management said earlier in a statement that it had received notice from the trade union, Unite, of a further eight-day strike that would start at 07:00 on September 27 and run until 06:59 on October 5.
“We are very disappointed that Unite has announced this further strike action at this time. The collective bargaining process has been exhausted and there is no prospect of agreement being reached with the union,” the port’s management said.
“The port is in the process of implementing the 2022 pay award of 7% plus £500, which is backdated to January 1, 2022.”
The latest strike is the second eight-day strike to hit the port after about 1 900 workers downed tools in August. Almost half of the container traffic entering the UK moves through Felixstowe. The industrial action has forced transporters to divert vessels to European ports and to delay or advance UK calls.
Unite said the strike had resumed after the company refused to return to negotiations following the initial eight-day strike in August. Instead, the company had imposed a seven per cent increase on the workforce. This amounted to a pay cut in real terms with the real inflation rate (retail price index) currently standing at 12.3%. The workers rejected the imposed pay offer by 82% on a 78% poll turnout.
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is a tremendously wealthy company which can fully afford to pay its workers a fair pay increase but has chosen not to in order to boost their already huge profits.
“Unite is now entirely focused on promoting and defending the jobs, pay and conditions of its members. The Felixstowe dock workers are receiving the union’s unflinching support.”
The Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company is owned by the multi-national port operator CK Hutchison, which is registered in the Cayman Islands. Unite said the company was fully able to pay its workers a fair pay increase as its 2021 accounts revealed record profits of £79m. The latest accounts of CK Hutchison revealed that it had a turnover of £30bn, the union said.
Unite national officer, Bobby Morton, said the latest strike would cause countrywide supply chain disruption.
“This latest round of strike action will inevitably cause huge disruption at Felixstowe and send shockwaves through the UK’s supply chain but this dispute is entirely of the company’s own making. It has been given every opportunity to negotiate an agreement but it has refused to do so.”
As the strike threatens to cripple the supply chain, several new port developments are under way.
According to Maritime Executive, Associated British Ports and Solent Stevedores are jointly investing almost US$19m in a new container facility for deep-sea shipping lines at the Port of Southampton. The project includes an 18-acre facility, linked to the existing intermodal rail transport site with laden and empty container handling, storage, maintenance, and repair. The project, which recently broke ground, is expected to be completed in late 2023.
A nearly $400m investment is also under way at the DP World-operated London Gateway port to build a fourth berth to boost capacity by a third when it opens in 2024.
