Port of Felixstowe reaches agreement to end strikes

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Port of Felixstowe reaches agreement to end strikes

Dockworkers at the Port of Felixstowe have reached a deal ending months of strike action that rampaged through UK’s largest container port.

The port said that over 90 per cent of its workers have agreed to accept a pay deal that would lift wages 8.5 per cent next year.

The port, owned by a unit of Hutchison Ports UK Ltd., will also pay workers a £1,000 ($1,228) bonus effective 1 January 2023, a spokesperson for the port said.

Hutchison Ports had originally offered an increase of 7 per cent plus a £500 ($614) bonus.

Unite the union had called for a pay rise to match the rate of inflation – about 10 per cent at the time – and said the port’s offer was effectively a pay cut.

Robert Ashton, Chief Operating Officer at the Port of Felixstowe, said the deal “provides welcome certainty and stability at a time when our employees, like everyone else, are facing an increase in the cost of living”.

A leading member of Unite commented: “The deal means that, as it stands, no further industrial action is due to take place at the port. The agreement equates to 15 and a half per cent over two years.

“In that respect, our members regarded it a positive thing.”

Members of Unite at the Port of Felixstowe went on several strikes from August to September.

Due to continuous strike action, vessel arrivals at the Ports of Liverpool – where strike action ended 8 November – and Felixstowe toppled as other ports across the UK benefitted from the shift.

Just last week, South Korean truckers voted to end strike action that rocked the country’s supply chain for the past 16 days.

On 9 December, 62 per cent of union members voted in favour of ending the strike after more than two weeks of industrial action, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

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