Workers at the Port of Liverpool plan a two-week strike over pay from 19 September
Some 560 dockworkers at the Port of Liverpool, one of Britain’s largest container docks, will go on strike from 19 September to 3 October over pay, the Unite union announced last week (2 September).
The action follows an eight-day walkout last month by workers at Felixstowe, Britain’s largest container port, which clogged supply lines in an industry already facing supply chain issues.
The Liverpool strike will severely disrupt shipping and road transport in Liverpool and surrounding areas, Unite said.
Liverpool port operatives and maintenance engineers are striking over a 7 per cent pay offer they say amounts to an effective “pay cut” with inflation reaching double digits. They also say Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC) has failed to honour a 2021 pay deal.
“Workers across the country are sick to death of being told to take a hit on their wages and living standards,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said in a statement, urging the MDHC to table a good offer.
MDHC parent Peel Ports said it had offered a pay package of 8.3 per cent on top of a 4.5 per cent pay increase last year and other improvements to shifts, sick pay and pensions.
“Our pay offer is well above the national average and represents a sustainable position for the business, taking into account stagnation in the container market, worldwide economic pressures, the conflict in Ukraine and global shipping disruption,” Peel Ports chief operating officer David Huck said in a statement.
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