Workers at UK’s biggest port begin eight-day strike

London, Aug 21 (EFE).- Almost 2,000 dock workers at the United Kingdom’s biggest container port in Felixstowe, Suffolk, have gone on an eight-day strike starting Sunday.

The Unite trade union said its members had rejected a 7% pay offer, saying it was “significantly below” the rate of inflation that hit 10.1% in July, its highest level in 40 years.

The port of Felixstowe said in a statement Sunday that it is “disappointed” that Unite had not taken the pay offer.

“Unite has failed our employees by not consulting them on the offer and, as a result, they have been put in a position where they will lose pay by going on strike,” it added.

Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, said: “Felixstowe docks is enormously profitable. The latest figures show that in 2020 it made £61 million in profits.

“Its parent company, CK Hutchison Holding Ltd, is so wealthy that, in the same year, it handed out £99m to its shareholders.”

The strike is the first to hit the port since 1989 and the latest in a series of walkouts across various sectors such as Overground and Underground rail services.EFE

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