An eight-day walk-out at the UK’s biggest container port could lead to empty shelves in the run-up to Christmas, it is feared.
Around 1,900 members of trade union Unite at Felixstowe walked out on Sunday in a dispute over pay in the first strike to hit the Suffolk port since 1989.
A new report by The Times suggests disruptions to supermarkets such as Tesco, M&S, Asda, John Lewis, and manufacturers including Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover could last until Christmas - costing about £700 million.
Unite national officer Robert Morton told Sky News on Monday: “The supply chain will be severely disrupted, I accept that. That’s one of the unfortunate parts of things like this.
“It could be over this afternoon if the employer agreed to meet us for real-time negotiations.
“The last message they gave to us is that ‘yes, we will meet you, but no, we will not move our position one inch’.
“That’s the wrong approach.”
Mr Morton added that the cost-of-living crisis is driving the decision by members to strike.
“Obviously our members in Felixstowe are affected by (the cost-of-living crisis),” he told Sky News.
“We are trying to keep pace with the inflation rate, yet the employer at Felixstowe has offered a 7 per cent increase as well as a £500 lump sum payment that’s not consolidated within the pay.
“If we don’t achieve what we’re trying to achieve, there will be more strikes.”
Paul Davey, head of corporate affairs at the Port of Felixstowe, told Sky News: “These negotiations have been going on for a long time now.
“The offer that was on the table at the time they voted to strike was 5 per cent plus £500. It’s now 7 per cent plus £500.
“We have moved considerably during the course of the negotiations.
“Unite started the negotiations asking for 10 per cent and they ended them asking for 10 per cent.
“There’s only one party here that’s tried to find a deal.”
