Peter Lazenby
This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
LIVERPOOL docks were at a standstill today as 560 dockers launched two weeks of strike action over pay.
Pickets were in action and more than 400 strikers and supporters staged a rally as the action began at 7am.
International solidarity came from dockers in Spain, Denmark, Sweden and France, who sent delegations to Liverpool.
Unite North West regional organiser Steve Gerrard told the Morning Star: “The police are enforcing picketing laws allowing us only six pickets on each entrance, but there was a crowd of 400 to 500.
“The company is awash with money. In the last five years they have divvied out £60 million to directors and shareholders.”
He accused dock bosses of reneging on agreements made in 2021 on carrying out job evaluations, shift patterns, pay rates for different skills and reductions in night working.
“Now they are saying it will be 2023-24 before that is in place,” he said.
Management is believed to be diverting ships destined for Liverpool to other ports. The Liverpool dockers will be appealing for solidarity from dockers working at other ports.
Mr Gerrard said: “Our members worked throughout the pandemic and put their families at risk.
"Back then we were key workers. Now we are just militant dockers.
“There will undoubtedly be international support at other ports around the world.
“Trade unions in France, Spain, Holland and Germany have a lot more trade union freedoms than we do.”
On Friday, the strikers will be joined by dockers from Felixstowe, where 1,900 are involved in strike action over pay.
The dockers rejected a proposed pay increase of 7 per cent and also a proposed 8.3 per cent increase with a £750 one-off payment.
Inflation continues to hover at about 10 per cent, and the dockers want a pay rise equal to inflation plus an increase on top.
The docks are run by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company which is part of Peel Ports, one of five companies which run ports in the UK and Ireland.
David Huck, the port’s chief operating officer, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the strike.
