Workers, including crane drivers and machine operators, will strike at the port of Felixstowe on the east coast of England, which handles about four million containers a year from 2,000 ships.
The strike comes as people across the UK faced travel disruptions today, for the third day of this week, as thousands of railway workers continue a summer of strikes to protest better pay and job security as food and energy prices soar.
It is estimated that only one in five trains in the UK operate today, with some areas without services throughout the day. Football and cricket fans who attend matches as well as tourists are among those hardest hit by the lockdown.
These outages continue on Sunday and union leaders are acknowledging the possibility of further strikes.
On Friday, most metro lines were halted due to a separate outage.
Unite says port owner Felixstowe CK Hutchison Holding Ltd has prioritized profits over paying workers a decent wage.
The port authorities, in turn, say they are “disappointed” that Unite “did not come to the negotiating table to have constructive discussions to find a solution”.
Felixstowe is responsible for nearly half of container shipping entering the country. This stop could mean ships are diverted to other ports in the UK or Europe.
A growing number of unions are planning strikes as Britain faces its worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. The latest figures, released earlier this week, put inflation at 10.1%, and a growing number of Britons are struggling to deal with energy and food bills, whose prices have risen as wages can already keep up with the cost of living.
Postal workers, lawyers, BT employees and rubbish-collecting workers have all announced a layoff until the end of this month.
Rail workers launched a series of large-scale strikes that paralyzed national rail travel in June, demanding better wages and working conditions as authorities try to reform the railway system, which has lost much of its revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Changing travel patterns.
The government and transport unions did not reach a solution despite months of negotiations.
ALU // JH
Lusa / end
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