Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK’s supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company’s own making,” said Bobby Morton, the Unite union’s national officer for docks.
LONDON:
More than 1,900 workers at Britain’s biggest container port are due on Sunday to start eight days of strike action which their union and shipping companies warn could seriously affect trade and supply chains.
The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis.
Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK’s supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company’s own making,” said Bobby Morton, the Unite union’s national officer for docks.
“It [the company] has had every opportunity make our members a fair offer but has chosen not to do so.”
Meanwhile, a port source told the PA news agency that the protest would be an “inconvenience not a catastrophe,” given that supply chains have gotten used to disruptions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Disruption is the new normal. The supply chain has moved from ‘just in time to just in case’,” the source was quoted as saying.
The UK has been facing a wave of strikes in recent months due to record inflation. Railway and airport employees, lawyers, postmen and workers in other areas have been protesting against job cuts, low pay while also demanding the improvement of working conditions. On August 4, the Bank of England raised its interest rate by 50 basis points to 1.75% from 1.25% per annum — the largest single increase since 1995. Now the rate is at its highest level since December 2008, when it was 2%. According to the bank’s forecasts, the British economy will fall into recession in the fourth quarter of 2022.
On Wednesday, the UK Office for National Statistics said that annual inflation in the country had risen to a new 40-year high of 10,1% in July from 9.4% in June.
On Friday, Felixstowe’s operator Hutchison Ports said it believed its offer of a 7% pay rise and a lump sum of 500 pounds ($604) was fair. It said the port’s workers union, which represents about 500 staff in supervisory, engineering and clerical roles, had accepted the deal.Unite, which represents mainly dock workers, says the proposal is significantly below the current inflation rate, and followed a below inflation increase last year.
“The port regrets the impact this action will have on UK supply chains,” a Hutchison Ports spokesperson said.
The news comes just a day after 800 workers at an Amazon.com warehouse in the southeast of England staged a two-day walkout over the U.S. tech giant’s pay offer, which workers union GMB said does not match up to the rising cost of living.
A cost-of-living squeeze on household income has already seen workers across sectors protest over salaries, and the central bank this week warned of a long recession after lifting interest rates to control inflation.