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| Volume 52 Number 19, August 27, 2022 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
Striking dock workers at Felixstowe - Photo: Press
Association
Dock workers at Felixstowe, Britain's largest container port, have gone on strike for the first time since 1989. Strikers include crane drivers, machine operators and stevedores who load and unload ships. A powerful action has seen workers mounting pickets on the morning of Sunday, August 21, from 6.00am, immediately after refusing a settlement from the operating company, Hutchison Ports. Workers rejected a 7% pay offer from the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company, saying it was below the rate of inflation. The strike action of some 1,900 workers at the port is expected to continue for eight days, lasting until August 29. The picket line will be manned every day until 22:00pm. Already there is reported huge support from the public.
Felixstowe is Britain's busiest port, and one of the largest in Europe, with 2,550 people working at the port, which handles about 48% of the container freight coming into Britain. The port handles some 4 million containers annually, from around 2,000 ships.
The strike is significant. The action is reminiscent of the traditional alliance between dockers and transport workers. It is no accident that the strike is taking place at a time of widescale industrial action of many unions, particularly railway workers who are engaging in struggle at the same time.
"Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK's supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company's own making," Bobby Morton, the Unite union's national officer for docks, said in a Unite statement announcing the strike earlier this month. "We're being told to accept a real terms pay cut whilst bosses and shareholders are taking record profits for themselves," Sharon Graham, the union's general secretary, posted on Twitter.
Port spokesman Paul Davey said the average pay for workers at Felixstowe was £43,000, and employees had been offered a 7% rise 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. He also attacked the workers for acting as "pawns" for an agenda set by Unite, implying that workers do not know their own minds.
One of the picket lines at Felixstowe - Photo: Richard
Allday
Freight transport body Logistics UK attempted to dismiss the action saying it was "not expecting massive disruption" from the walkout. The trade association implied that it would try and break the action by saying, "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. 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."
The reality is exposed by Adam Searle, managing director of haulage firm CP Transport, who said that if his firm did not move any containers this week it could stand to lose £60,000-£70,000. He said: "Throughout Suffolk the bill could run into the millions and throughout the country a lot more. "It's not going to affect food supply chains because all the fresh produce is already in stock, but it will effect the supply chain in terms of furniture, fences and random bits and bobs."
Sharon Graham explained: "Felixstowe docks is enormously profitable," and together with its parent company, CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd, "could give Felixstowe workers a decent pay raise". She added, "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, said people are angry now a company who made £240m over the last two years are unwilling to share it with them. He said that workers 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."
After the workers at Felixstowe had announced their eight days of strike action, more than 500 dock workers at Britain's fourth largest port, Liverpool's Peel Port, voted on August 15 to strike after rejecting a 7 percent pay offer. The workers are demanding pay increases in line with the soaring inflation, and accuse the owners of failing to raise pay since 2018 and of reneging on an agreed bonus scheme.
These strikes are important actions in the interests of the entire working class at this time. It is significant as another of the largest union organisations is coming to the head of the general fray in a crucial sector linked to transport and distribution of products. The unions and community organisations have launched the "Enough is Enough" campaign, so it is incumbent on those who are engaged in this struggle for the rights of all to develop the struggles and solidarity with each other. It is important because workers are now clearly giving the call that Enough is Enough! in the face of the intensifying anti-social offensive. Workers demand a new direction for the economy, independent of the Westminster cartel parties, and against private monopoly and oligopoly control and decision-making.