Workers at the port of Felixstowe have voted for further strikes after overwhelmingly rejecting management’s attempt to impose a pay deal, the Unite union has announced.
The fresh strike action for eight days has been called to start from 7.00am on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, and end at 6.59am on Wednesday, October 5, 2022. The previous eight days of strike action in August brought the port, which is responsible for 48% of the UK’s container goods, to a standstill.
The Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company is ultimately owned by the multi-national port operator CK Hutchison, which is registered in the Cayman Islands.
Last week, Unite said 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 7% 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%, the UK's leading union said.
In response Unite, which represents 1,900 blue-collar workers at the port, polled its members and they voted to reject the imposed pay offer by 82% on a 78% turnout.
In a statement, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Felixstowe and CK Hutchison are both eye-wateringly wealthy but rather than offer 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," she added.
Unite national officer for docks Bobby Morton said: “The latest strike action is entirely of Felixstowe’s own making. Rather than seeking to negotiate a deal to resolve the dispute, the company instead tried to impose a pay deal. Further strike action will inevitably lead to delays and disruption to the UK’s supply chain but this is entirely of the company’s own making.”