Port users are bracing for the United Kingdom’s largest container port to come to a grinding halt in August after members of Unite, the UK’s leading trade union, overwhelmingly backed strike action in a dispute over pay.
Unite said on Thursday that its 1900 members, who are responsible for all aspects of the Felixstowe port’s operations, had recorded a 92% vote for industrial action on an 81% voting turnout. If workers down tools as planned it will be the first strike at the Suffolk hub in 30 years.
The dispute comes after Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company offered workers a pay increase of just 5%, which the union described as amounting to “an effective pay cut” as the inflation rate currently stands at 11.9%. The port workers received a below-inflation pay increase of just 1.4% in 2021.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the employer was financially well off enough to give workers a pay increase, especially since it had recently handsomely rewarded its shareholders. The port’s dock and railway company’s most recent financial reports reveal that it made pre-tax profits of £61 million in 2020, when it paid out £99m in dividends.
“The bottom line is this is an extremely wealthy company that can fully afford to give its workers a pay rise. Instead it chose to give bonanza payouts to shareholders touching £100m,” Graham said.
“Unite is focused on defending the jobs, pay and conditions of its members and we will be giving 100% support to our members at Felixstowe. Workers should not be paying the price for the pandemic with a pay cut. Unite has undertaken 360 disputes in a matter of months and we will do all in our power to defend workers,” she said.
A strike at Felixstowe, which moves about 48% of the UK’s container trade, will create a logistical nightmare for maritime and road transporters and ripple through the economy. The port handled around 17.6m tonnes of container traffic in 2021 and more than 20 000 ships.
Unite regional officer Miles Hubbard said strike action would inevitably create “huge disruption across the UK’s supply chain”. It would exacerbate the problems caused by industrial action on the rail network and lead to border delays at Channel ports.
“This dispute is of Felixstowe’s own making. Strike dates have yet to be announced but even at this late stage the dispute could be resolved by the company returning to negotiations and making a realistic offer,” Hubbard said.
