DOCK workers at the UK port of Liverpool are to join a third strike as the dispute between staff and operator Peel Ports escalates.

Liverpool workers launched the first action with a two-week strike on September 19 and a second, one-week stoppage has been in progress since October 11.

The new industrial action will begin on October 24, lasting for two weeks and involving nearly 600 port workers.

The strike is set to cause addition disruptions at the port and Liverpool’s surrounding supply chains, as well as terminal users such as Atlantic Container Line, which makes its only UK calls at Liverpool.

ACL chief executive Andy Abbott said that in the seven-week period between September 20 and November 7, the port will have been open for just two weeks and closed for five.

“Fed up is a bit of an understatement,” he told Lloyd’s List.

“The on-again, off-again nature of the strikes makes any attempt at service a nightmare. Cargo needs three extra weeks just to move through the port.”

With a single work week flanked by one to two strike weeks, for ships calling early in the working week there was no time for export cargo to be delivered to the terminal because it had been closed.

And for ships arriving later late in the week, there was no time for import cargo to be delivered to consignees before the terminal closed again.

“So our UK liftings have dropped dramatically,” Mr Abbott said.

“Much of the UK cargo we were carrying has moved to other carriers via other ports and ACL is replacing it with cargo from other European areas.”

The people losing out most were those connected with the port of Liverpool: the terminal operator, labour and the various local hauliers and vendors.

“The longer this dispute goes on the more cargo will be permanently lost because other carriers/ports are starting to sign long-term contracts to keep what they have gained.”

The new action comes worker representatives Unite the Union said Peel Holdings, which owns Peel Ports, had reached an 11% pay settlement with staff at its Camel Laird shipbuilding facility in Birkenhead, but was only offering 8.2% to Liverpool staff.

“Peel Holdings is hugely profitable and can absolutely afford to pay our members a proper wage increase,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. “It did so at Camel Laird, so why not at Liverpool docks?”

She added that Liverpool workers had been threatened with redundancies, despite plans to expand the port.

“Instead of negotiations to resolve this dispute, the company has chosen to threaten jobs and repeatedly mislead about the deal it has tabled. Our members are standing firm and have their union’s complete support. The company must put forward a pay rise they can accept, or this strike continues.”

She added that the dispute was also over the failure to honour the dock workers’ 2021 pay agreement.

This included the company not undertaking a promised pay review, which last happened in 1995, and failing to deliver on an agreement to improve shift rotas.

“If Peel had genuinely offered 10.2% to all grades, we would ballot our members,” said Unite national coordinating officer Steven Gerrard. “But they haven’t, nor have they addressed their failure to implement 2021’s pay agreement. Our members won’t put up with being treated as the second-class employees of the group. Unite’s message to Peel is, ‘Stop the threats and misleading statements and put a proper offer on the table’.”