Felixstowe dockers plan eight-day strike in pay dispute
Dockers at Felixstowe are planning eight days of strike action over pay that could cause serious disruption to the UK’s largest container port.
Nearly 1,900 workers plan to stop work for more than a week at the Hong Kong-owned port, starting on Sunday 21 August and ending on Monday 29 August, according to the union Unite. The workers voted 92% in favour of strike action last week.
The union said the latest round of talks with the company at Acas, the conciliation service, had failed to yield a “reasonable offer”, but further talks are planned for Monday.
Prolonged strikes would almost certainly disrupt traffic through the port, adding to the problems facing the UK economy as it braces for a deep, year-long recession.
Felixstowe, on the Suffolk coast, handles the equivalent of 4m 20-ft shipping containers every year from about 2,000 ships – including some of the very largest container ships ever made. It is the eighth-largest container port in Europe, according to the EU statistics agency, Eurostat.
The port employs 2,500 people overall. Unite said the loss of the majority of its workforce, including crane drivers, machine operators and stevedores (responsible for unloading ships) would have a “huge effect” on the UK’s supply chains. However, a source at the port said a strike would not mean shutting it completely.
The pay dispute is the latest in a series of problems to hit UK transport infrastructure. Travellers through Dover also suffered massive queues last month when the port failed to cope with high numbers of holidaymakers after the end of term for many schools in England and Wales.
Workers and train drivers on Great Britain’s railways have also gone on several strikes, with further action planned on two days over the
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