Felixstowe dockworkers to strike over pay as unions warn of disruption

2022-07-28

Dockworkers vote for summer strike action with staff at UK’s biggest container port of Felixstowe threatening walkout in pay row as unions warn of ‘major’ supply chain disruption

Union Unite warned of ‘major logistical problems’ for haulage at Felixstowe port
Workers at Felixstowe Docks offered 5% pay rise by owners Hutchison Ports
The port said they made a ‘fair offer’ and were ‘disappointed’ by strike ballot
The strike was supported by 92% of Unite members who voted in the ballot

Dockworkers at the UK’s biggest container port of Felixstowe have voted for summer strike action over a pay row.

Unite the Union threatened the walkout and warned of ‘major’ disruption across the supply chain.

The port staff join a growing wave of employees, in a range of sectors from rail to telecoms, resorting to industrial action as pay rises fail to keep pace with inflation which is expected to hit double digits in Britain by the end of the year.

Dockworkers at the UK’s biggest container port of Felixstowe (pictured) have voted for summer strike action over a pay row

Unite’s regional officer Miles Hubbard said the industrial action would ‘inevitably create huge disruption across the UK’s supply chain’

‘Strike action would bring Felixstowe to a standstill and would cause major logistical problems for maritime and road haulage transport entering the port,’ Unite said in a statement.

Unite’s regional officer Miles Hubbard said the industrial action would ‘inevitably create huge disruption across the UK’s supply chain’.

Unite said workers at Felixstowe Docks, which is operated by Hutchison Ports, had been offered a pay increase of five per cent, which workers have rejected.

A port spokesperson said: ‘The company made what we believe to be a very fair offer and we are disappointed with the result of the ballot.’

The Aslef union has announced train drivers at nine rail companies are to go on strike on August 13 in a row over pay.

It will affect staff at the following rail operators:

London Overground
Greater Anglia
Great Western Railway
Hull Trains
LNER
London Northwestern Railway
Southeastern
West Midlands Railway
Avanti West Coast
Crosscountry

‘We hope that any industrial action can be avoided,’ the spokesperson added, saying the union had agreed to a request to meet with the conciliation service ACAS next week.

The union did not give specific dates for the strike action, which will take place next month and was supported by 92 per cent of workers who voted.

Earlier this month Unite said it was also balloting hundreds of dockworkers in Liverpool for possible strike action.

This will be the latest in a long list of strikes this year as rail workers in the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union went on strike again yesterday, causing travel chaos, in a dispute over pay and conditions.

RMT boss Mick Lynch has also now called for a general strike if Liz Truss becomes Prime Minister and brings in legislation to halt strikes affecting the country.

The Foreign Secretary and Tory leadership candidate has promised to introduce policy preventing ‘militant action’ from trade unions that will ‘paralyse’ the economy if she becomes Prime Minister.

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, told the i newspaper that ‘coordinated and synchronised industrial action’ would be needed if legislation is brought in.

The Aslef union has also announced announced train drivers will go on strike on August 13, potentially ruining the journeys of thousands.

Binmen and women in affluent areas of Surrey have also announced they will go on strike for 20 days next month in a fresh dispute in the industry over pay.

Mick Lynch joins the picket at Euston Station station yesterday, July 27, as rail workers in the RMT strike over pay and conditions

The GMB said its members employed by Amey in Elmbridge and Surrey Heath will strike from August 1 to 19, with no kerbside rubbish collection for the period.

GMB bosses said locals in Surrey can ‘now look forward to what is looking likely to be the hottest and now probably the smelliest August for many years’.

They added that refuse workers with the union are ‘at least £3 per hour underpaid’.

The union told MailOnline that its officials are asking for £15 per hour for the drivers – plus a driver retention bonus of £1.60 per hour – and £13 per hour for the loaders.

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