SIMIC

Unite members at the Port of Liverpool began the industrial action last evening, hours after the Queen's funeral, having turned down a pay offer from the Peel Ports Group, which owns the site.

The company said workers had rejected a 8.3 per cent pay rise, enhanced with a one-off payment of GBP750 (US$857). However the union described the offer as a real-terms pay cut because of the soaring rate of inflation during the cost of living crisis, arguing that the port's 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 the week after.

Unite members at the Suffolk port, which handles almost half the container freight that enters the UK, are preparing to halt work from September 27, after rejecting a 7 per cent pay deal offered by management.

A previous eight-day strike at Felixstowe, which handles goods for 17 different shipping lines operating to and from 700 ports, brought it to a standstill.

David Huck, the Port of Liverpool's chief operating officer, said: "I am deeply disappointed Unite has rejected our significant pay package after many months of negotiation. This is bad news for our employees, families and other local employers.

"We fully recognise our colleagues' concerns on the cost of living crisis, and that's why we have responded with a pay package that represents a 10 per cent average increase in annual pay."

Unite's general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: "Workers across the country are sick to death of being told to take a hit on their wages and living standards while employer after employer is guilty of rampant profiteering."

The Port of Liverpool operates two container terminals, the Royal Seaforth Container Terminal and Liverpool2, employing a total of 845 people in the containers division.

The docks handled approximately 525,000 containers in 2021 and the goods inside the containers were distributed around the world, with the products including imports and exports, such as retail and industrial items.