Felixstowe: Unite union announce strike for port staff over pay

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The Felixstowe container port is the largest in the UK and is responsible for almost half of the containers arriving to Britain. The eight-day strike by dock workers as part of the Unite Union are taking part in their first strike action in 30 years.

Strike action began on Sunday with a picket line formed in the early hours and an announcement that it would be staffed until 10pm each day of the strike.

On Sunday, Miles Hubbard, from Unite’s regional office told the BBC: “Very few people reported for work this morning.

“The picket line has been in place since 6am and we’re getting great support from the public.”

Those on strike at the port include crane drivers, machine operators and those who load and unload the ships, causing concerns of empty shelves in the coming weeks.

Unite said that the industrial action taking place this week may have a “huge effect on the UK’s supply chain and will also cause severe disruption to international maritime trade.”

However, a spokesperson for Logistics UK said it is “not expecting massive disruption” adding that “Felixstowe is not a ‘just in time’ delivery port – everything coming in is scheduled well in advance.”

The General Secretary of Unite the Union, Sharon Graham tweeted: “Let’s be very clear, Felixstowe Docks is hugely profitable.

“Together with its company CK Hutchinson they can and must give workers a decent pay rise.

“I will be with our members every step of the way, for as long as it takes.”

The General Secretary added: “Felixstowe Docks and its associated companies have been prioritising profits and dividends instead of giving their workers a decent share of the pie.

“Instead, the company is syphoning off tens of millions of pounds offshore to its Hong Kong-based parent company, almost every year.

“So, Hong Kong shareholders are getting a bonanza pay-out while the company weeps ‘crocodile tears’ claiming that they can’t pay a decent pay rise here and essentially asking workers to accept a pay cut.”

Paul Davey, a spokesman for Felixstowe Port has noted that the average salary for workers is £43,000 and employees have been offered a seven percent pay rise alongside a single payment of £500.

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The offer was an increase of between 8.1 percent and 9.6 percent depending on the role of the workers at the port while the average pay rise in the country was five percent.

He said: “We’ve got a shrinking economy; we’re going into recession…I think that’s a very fair offer indeed.”

Members rejected the pay offer which Unite said was below the rate of inflation.

Mr Davey told BBC Radio 4: “It serves their purpose well to have a strike here at Felixstowe…I know many of them [workers] feel they’re being used as pawns in this game.”

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