LONDON: Workers at the UK's largest container port will hold an eight-day strike at the end of August, union bosses said on Friday Aug 5 in the country's latest industrial action over pay amid spiralling inflation.
The workers at the port of Felixstowe will begin a strike later this month in a dispute over pay after peace talks failed to produce a reasonable offer, the Unite unionUnite union said in a statement.
It said that over 1,900 workers will hold eight days of strikes from Aug 21 to Aug 29.
The union said the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company failed to improve on its offer of a seven per cent pay increase, with inflation predicted to hit 13 per cent later this year.
Felixstowe docks and its parent company CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd are both hugely profitable and incredibly wealthy. Sharon Graham, General Secretary of Unite, said they are fully able to pay the workforce a fair day's pay.
Felixstowe, in east England, is the UK's largest container port and handles 48 per cent of containers brought into the country.
Strike action will cause huge disruption and will cause massive shockwaves across the UK supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company's own, said Bobby Morton, Unite's national officer for docks.
The UK is embroiled in dispute over pay and conditions, with economic headwinds set to strengthen later this year.
Hundreds of workers at Amazon warehouse in the UK downed tools Thursday in protest over a pay rise of 35 pence 41 euro cents, 42 US cents per hour.
The GMB trade union said staff at the warehouse in Tilbury, southeast England, were seeking a 2 hour rise to help deal with the cost-of-living crisis.
Train workers recently brought the country's network to a standstill when they held their biggest walkouts in three decades.