The strike began yesterday in the UK’s largest shipping port and is expected to last eight days, the latest in a series of protest movements affecting multiple sectors demanding higher wages in the face of record inflation.
After three consecutive days of strike that paralyzed public transport, especially railways, the port of Felixstowe (East of England) in turn began to strike, and this strike is the first since 1989 in the port, through which about 4 million containers passed. take place annually.
Some 1,900 Unite members, including crane, machine and dock workers, have stopped work to demand higher wages at the height of Britain’s cost-of-living crisis.
Inflation reached 10.1 percent in July on an annualized basis and is expected to top 13 percent in October, the highest recorded by a G7 member.
“The Port of Felixo is very profitable, the latest figures show that it will generate 61 million pounds (about 72 million euros) in profit in 2020.
She added: “The parent company CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. is so wealthy that it is distributing £99 million to its shareholders to give the workers in Felixstowe a decent pay rise.”
Officials at the Port of Felixo, for their part, expressed “disappointment that Unite did not accept their offer to call off the strike and sit down at the negotiating table for constructive talks with a view to finding a solution.”
The company confirmed that it has offered pay raises, which it considers “fair”, by an average of 8% and up to 10% for the lowest paid employees.
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court arrives in Khartoum
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan is in Khartoum for a five-day official visit, during which he will meet senior Sudanese officials and visit Darfur, the Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) reported.