Port Felixstowe offers bonus to employees for avoiding strike

Major British container port Felixstowe is offering workers a £500 bonus to prevent a strike later this week. Felixstowe is the UK’s largest container port and staff are planning an eight-day layoff later this month amid discontent over the failure of wage negotiations.

On Monday, negotiations resumed again between the port and the Unite union, but those consultations did not result in a breakthrough. Felixstowe had previously offered a 7 percent salary increase, but it was turned down. Dock workers want more wages to offset higher inflation. In order to implement these demands, nearly 2,000 employees want to strike from August 21 to 29.

Felixstow, northeast of London, accounts for nearly half of the containers handled in the UK. Port operator Hutchison Ports said it was disappointed that no agreement had been reached yet to avoid the strike.

Unite said it would completely shut down the port, with serious disruptions to logistics and transportation. According to the union, this will be hard to feel in UK supply chains. Felixstowe handles nearly 2,000 vessels and more than 4 million containers each year.

There may also be a strike in the port of Liverpool. There, dock workers will vote on a possible strike over wages. A decision should be made at Liverpool at the beginning of next week.