Negotiations to reach a settlement in the wage dispute at the Port of Felixstowe have come to a dead end.
The Unite trade union, which represents the 1,900 dockworkers paid by the hour – i.e. 85% of the workers at the port—turned down an offer by Hutchison, the operator of the UK’s largest container port, of a lump sum of £500 per worker along with a proposed pay rise of around 7%.
According to the union, the offer is well below the consumer price index inflation rate of 11.8% .
As a result, the eight-day strike that workers called for on August 21st will not be called off. There has not been a strike in the port since 1989.
Unite national official Robert Morton confirmed that Unite’s door remains open for further talks, but the strike would go ahead unless the company made an offer which was acceptable for their members.
The Port of Felixstowe is extremely profitable. The union pointed out that in 2020 the port of call grossed 61 million pounds in pre-tax profits and paid dividends of 99 million pounds.
Translation by Giles Foster
