DOCKERS at Britain’s two major ports – Merseyside and Felixstowe – are to strike together at the end of this month and the beginning of next, the union Unite announced yesterday.
Last week, the management at the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company unilaterally ended pay talks after refusing to improve its pay offer and instead announced that it was imposing a pay deal of seven per cent on the workforce.
The imposed pay deal is, in reality, a sizeable pay cut with the current real inflation rate (RPI) standing at 12.3 per cent.
In response, Unite, which represents 1,900 blue collar workers at the port, surveyed its members. They voted to reject the imposed pay offer by 82 per cent on a 78 per cent turnout.
As a result, fresh strike action for eight days has been called from 7.00am on Tuesday 27 September and ending on 6.59am on Wednesday 5th October.
The previous eight days of strike action last month brought the port, which is responsible for 48 per cent of the UK’s container goods, to a standstill.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said yesterday: ‘Felixstowe and CK Hutchison are both eye-wateringly wealthy but rather than make a fair pay offer, they have instead attempted to impose a real terms pay cut on their workers.
‘Since the beginning of this dispute Unite has given its total support to its members at Felixstowe and that will continue until this dispute is resolved.’
The company accounts for 2021 reveal that it made record profits of £79 million. Latest accounts of CK Hutchison, reveal it had a turnover of £30 billion.
At Merseyside Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), more than 560 port operatives and maintenance engineers will strike from 19 September to 3rd October against a seven per cent pay offer, with the real rate of inflation, RPI, at 12.3 per cent and rising.
Workers will also strike over MDHC’s failure to honour the 2021 pay agreement – this includes 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 leader Graham said: ‘MDHC is controlled by a tax-exiled billionaire and can well afford to pay these workers a proper pay rise.
‘Workers across the country are sick to death of being told to take a hit on their wages and living standards while employer after employer is guilty of rampant profiteering. MDHC needs to think again, table a reasonable offer and fulfil its previous pay promises.’
