Unite members at the Port of Liverpool will launch industrial action hours after the Queen’s funeral, having rejected a pay offer from Peel Ports Group, which owns the site. The company said workers had rejected an 8.3% pay rise, boosted by a £750 lump sum payment. However, the union described the offer as a pay cut in real terms due to the rising rate of inflation during the cost of living crisis, arguing that port owners could afford a higher increase. The dispute will overlap with a planned second eight-day strike at Felixstowe, the UK’s largest container port, which starts next week. Unite members at the port of Suffolk, which handles almost half of the containers entering the UK, are preparing to stop work from September 27 after rejecting a 7% pay deal offered by management. A previous eight-day strike at Felixstowe, which handles goods for 17 different shipping companies operating to and from 700 ports, brought it to a standstill. The latest round of walkouts threatens fresh disruption to UK supply chains after shocks from Brexit and the Covid pandemic, and follows a summer of industrial action that has affected sectors across the economy, including rail, postal services, law courts and of telecommunications. David Huck, Port of Liverpool Chief Operating Officer, said: “I am deeply disappointed that Unite has rejected our significant pay package after many months of negotiations. This is bad news for our employees, families and other local employers. “We fully recognize the concerns of our colleagues about the cost of living crisis and that is why we have responded with a pay package that represents an average 10% increase in annual pay.” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Workers across the country are sick of being told to take a hit on their wages and living standards, while employer after employer is guilty of rampant profiteering.” He said the port owners had to submit a “reasonable offer and fulfill previous promises of remuneration”. Subscribe to Business Today Get ready for the business day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The company said it had committed to a shift pattern change that would result in a 25% reduction in night work. It also said the average container operator salary would rise to around £43,000 a year, significantly above the Liverpool and national average. The Port of Liverpool operates two container terminals, the Royal Seaforth Container Terminal and Liverpool2, employing a total of 845 people in the container division. The docks handled approximately 525,000 containers in 2021 and the goods inside the containers were distributed around the world, with products including imports and exports such as retail and industrial goods.
