Nearly 2,000 workers at the UK’s largest container port will begin an eight-day strike on Sunday, Reuters reports. The union and shipping companies affiliated with Felixstowe warned that this could severely affect trade and supply chains. Workers at Felixstowe on the east coast of England want to force a wage increase with the strike.
The strike will cause massive disruption and shake the entire UK supply chain, but this dispute is entirely the company’s fault
said Bobby Morton, National Unite Docks Officer. “The company had every opportunity to make a fair offer to its workers, but they did not,” the official added.
On Friday, Felixstowe’s operator Hutchison Ports said it considered its offer of a 7 per cent pay increase and a lump sum of £500 ($604) fair. The port union, which represents about 500 supervisors, engineers, and book workers, accepted the offer.
Unite, which mainly represents port workers, says the proposal is well below the current rate of inflation and follows an increase that was below inflation last year.
A Hutchison Ports spokesperson said: “The port regrets the impact this measure will have on UK supply chains.” The port also said it had a contingency plan in place and was working to reduce disruption during the outage through August 29.
Shipping group Maersk, one of the world’s largest container carriers, has warned that the measures will have a significant impact, as it causes operational delays and forces the company to change its shipping schedule, according to reports. Reuters.
British inflation reached 10.1 percent in July, the highest rate since February 1982, according to data released on August 17, and some economists expect it will reach 15 percent in the first three months of next year due to higher energy and food prices. The decline in family income has already led to strikes, for example, railway and bus workers also demanded an increase in wages.
