(BBC)
Dock workers at the UK’s largest container port have gone on strike for the first time in 30 years.
About 1,900 members of the Unite union at Felixstowe in Suffolk are walking out for eight days in a dispute over pay.
Unite said members rejected a 7% pay offer from the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company, which it said was below the rate of inflation.
A port spokesman said the strike was “disappointing”.
A picket line formed early on Sunday as the strike began, and the union said it would be manned until 22:00 on each day of the walkout.
Miles Hubbard, from Unite’s regional office, told the BBC: “Very few people reported for work this morning.
“The picket line has been in place since 6am and we’re getting great support from the public.”
About 2,550 people work at the Port of Felixstowe – the country’s busiest port, handling about 48% of the UK’s container trade. Striking workers include crane drivers, machine operators and stevedores who load and unload ships.
Ahead of the strike, port spokesman Paul Davey said workers had been offered 7% plus a single payment of £500.
He said the offer represented “an increase of between 8.1% and 9.6%, depending upon the category of worker at the port”, at a time when the average pay increase in the country was 5%.
“We’ve got a shrinking economy, we’re going into recession… I think that’s a very fair offer indeed,” he said.
Freight transport body Logistics UK said it was “not expecting massive disruption” from the walkout.
A spokesperson for the trade association told BBC News: “Felixstowe is not a ‘just-in-time’ delivery port – everything coming in is scheduled well in advance.
“If it [the strike] goes on for longer than eight days then those using the port will be looking at alternative routes, but at the moment there is plenty of stock in the supply chain. Others have already been planning alternative routes – we’re not expecting panic.”
The spokesperson added: “As an industry, we are incredibly flexible and have been working for a while to put these goods into alternative ports if they have to be.”
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‘Huge impact on business’
However, some businesses expressed concern about the action.
Derek Hailstone, co-owner of Mick’s Cycles in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, said the strike had “the potential to affect us as most of our stock comes into the UK through Felixstowe”.
And Haulage company Turners of Soham in Cambridgeshire, which moves about 500 containers out of the port every day, said the walkout could cause problems.
“About 30% of our business is at Felixstowe, so it’s going to have a huge impact,” said Paul Day, managing director.
Explaining the reasons for the action, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Felixstowe docks is enormously profitable.”
Together with its parent company, CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd, they could “give Felixstowe workers a decent pay raise”, she said.
“It’s clear both companies have prioritised delivering multi-million pound profits and dividends rather than paying their workers a decent wage.”
Robert Morton, Unite national officer, also told the BBC: “The people in Felixstowe aren’t particularly militant and that’s been shown by the fact there hasn’t been a dispute for 30 years. But people are angry now a company who made £240m over the last two years are unwilling to share it with them.”
He said dock workers, whose salaries range between £20,000-£40,000, were going to be paid £370 per week with strike pay.
“Our members are understanding of what they will lose, but they’re looking at what they can gain as well.”
Meanwhile, the port said its staff union, which represents about 500 clerical and engineering employees, had “voted to accept the same pay offer that Unite has refused to put to its members”.
Unite said it had balloted the dock workers, not the clerical groups represented by the Port of Felixstowe staff union.
Referring to the staff who had accepted the offer, a Unite spokesperson said: “This group of members have the right to accept the offer from the company but Unite’s dockers want to press for 10%.”
Strike action at the port is expected to last until Monday 29 August.