Liverpool workers strike again under shadow of redundancies
Union says Peel Ports is trying to intimidate workers into accepting an offer
UK port workers start another week of industrial action. Port management say union demand is twice the rate of inflation
THE war of words between employers and worker representatives at the port of Liverpool has heated up as a second week of industrial action began.
Workers at the port, in the northwest of England, downed tools after rejecting an average 10.2% basic pay offer from operator Peel Ports.
Peel Ports said the offer was 2% higher than the UK’s key Consumer Price Index measure of inflation, which was running at 8.2%.
Unite the Union, representing dockworkers, has demanded a 15.7% rise, which Peel said was almost twice the inflation rate at the pay anniversary review date in June.
Peel Ports also said the union was refusing to take part in tripartite talks with the independent Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.
“Unite continues to make unrealistic and unsustainable above-inflation pay demands, whilst declining a meeting with ACAS,” a port spokesperson said. “We are concerned Unite have no interest in resolving matters through the collective bargaining arrangements we have in place or via an independent ballot, as it continues to push for more strikes.”
The latest strike action comes after Peel Ports warned of redundancies driven by a slowdown in the number of vessel calls to Liverpool. The union described the threat as a “desperate” attempt to intimidate workers into accepting an offer.
The threatened redundancies made no sense, and had been already been proposed and dropped, Unite said, adding the port had already revealed that it was looking to expand.
“These regurgitated, months-old plans are simply a desperate attempt to intimidate workers,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. “It won’t work.”
Peel Ports warned, however, that continuing strike action would hurt businesses in the Liverpool region and the prospects for future growth and jobs at a time of economic uncertainty and volatile market conditions.
“We call on Unite to reconsider the greatly enhanced offer via an independent ballot, so we can bring these damaging strikes to an end,” the spokesperson said.
Liverpool has already seen a severe impact in volumes from the strike action, according to data from FourKites, which showed shipments arrivals decreased by 85% in September when the first two-week strike occurred.
