Dockworkers at the Port of Felixstowe have reached a deal ending months of strike action that rampaged through UK’s largest container port.
The port said that over 90 per cent of its workers have agreed to accept a pay deal that would lift wages 8.5 per cent next year.
The port, owned by a unit of Hutchison Ports UK Ltd., will also pay workers a £1,000 ($1,228) bonus effective 1 January 2023, a spokesperson for the port said.
Hutchison Ports had originally offered an increase of 7 per cent plus a £500 ($614) bonus.
Unite the union had called for a pay rise to match the rate of inflation – about 10 per cent at the time – and said the port’s offer was effectively a pay cut.
Robert Ashton, Chief Operating Officer at the Port of Felixstowe, said the deal “provides welcome certainty and stability at a time when our employees, like everyone else, are facing an increase in the cost of living”.
A leading member of Unite commented: “The deal means that, as it stands, no further industrial action is due to take place at the port. The agreement equates to 15 and a half per cent over two years.
“In that respect, our members regarded it a positive thing.”
Members of Unite at the Port of Felixstowe went on several strikes from August to September.
Due to continuous strike action, vessel arrivals at the Ports of Liverpool – where strike action ended 8 November – and Felixstowe toppled as other ports across the UK benefitted from the shift.
On 9 December, 62 per cent of union members voted in favour of ending the strike after more than two weeks of industrial action, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
