The first recorded port strike in over two decades is paralyzing trade activities as the ongoing strike at the UK’s busiest container port enters a second day after workers walked out on Sunday in a pay dispute. The union Unite said about 1,900 of its members were taking action, expected to last eight days, at the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk.
A 7% pay offer from the port operator was described as “significantly below” the rate of inflation by Unite. The decision to strike was described by the port as “disappointing”.
A picket line formed for a second time on Monday, with the union saying it would be staffed until 22:00 BST each day of the strike.
The Port of Felixstowe handles about 48% of container trade, and employs about 2,550 people, Unite said.
Port spokesman Paul Davey said the pay offer of “7% plus £500 was “a very fair offer indeed.”
On Monday, he told Sky News that “a lot of [its] employees, Unite members, don’t want to be on strike” but crossing a picket line was “a very intimidating atmosphere”.
“We’ve spoken to a lot of them,” he said.
“There’s a lot of people at home who are quite angry with Unite, that they haven’t given them an opportunity to vote on a pay deal which we know many of them would accept. They’ve told us they would.”
Unite national officer, Robert Morton, acknowledged it had not put the employer’s offer to its members but said they had wanted an improved pay offer in line with at “least the rate of inflation”.
“So when we get further up the negotiations, perhaps we will put an offer to them, but it certainly won’t be at 7%,” he said.
He suggested a figure between “7% and 12.3%” would be “acceptable”.
Docker Andrew Damant, on the picket line on Monday, said workers wanted a 10% rise.
“My rent was increased by £90 six months ago,” he said.
“We’re on pay-as-you-go gas and electric meters [and] whereas gas was £20 a month in the summer before, it’s now £40 a month, the electricity is £100 a month and this is only going to go up and up and up.”
There is also concern about the impact of the strike on shipping companies.
Mark Woodward, from DFDS Seaways, said: “Longer term, if the situation isn’t resolved, it’s going to have a reputational impact both on ourselves as DFDS and the Port of Felixstowe as a safe operating zone and customers will look necessarily elsewhere.”
Container logistics company, Maersk, has said eight days of no operation will have a “significant impact” and it has been left with “no choice but to omit three services”.
UK managing director, Gary Jeffreys, said the containers on those vessels will be “dropped off” in Europe and transferred back to Felixstowe or an alternative UK port based on customer preferences within the “quickest time possible”.
“This is normal practice when we invoke a contingency situation which can be for various reasons from industrial action, labour availability or even weather,” he said.
Mr Jeffreys added that while most customers have told them they are “well-stocked”, there will be “fast-moving consumer goods that will be needed quickly”.
“Not everyone, especially small/medium size companies, will have the luxury of significant stocks, they will be hit harder.
“Ultimately everyone is impacted, we will always find ways to keep cargo moving but we need the port and the unions to reach an agreement which means we can return to normal service.”
Strike action at the port is expected to last until Monday, 29 August.
