Dock workers at the port of Liverpool are extending their strike action for a further two weeks, from 24 October to 7 November. This follows their most recent strike from 11 to 17 October demanding a 11% pay rise. They are unhappy with the company Peel Ports Group offering them a 10.2% pay rise. They are digging in their heels because the company has given workers at a ship building company, Camel Laird, that it owns an 11% increase.
"Since the strikes at the docks began on 19 September, the workers have been subject to job threats despite plans to expand the port and untrue statements that they are being offered 10.2% by the company. The real offer is around 8.2%, a pay cut while the RPI inflation rate is at 12.3%," said their Unite union in a statement.
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham: “Peel Holdings is hugely profitable and can absolutely afford to pay our members a proper wage increase. It did so at Camel Laird, so why not at Liverpool docks? 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.”
David Huck, Chief Operating Officer at Peel Ports: “Unite’s decision to call a further two-week strike, against a backdrop of dramatic reductions in container volumes, is entirely self-defeating."
Source: Porttechnology.org