Dave Murray, Eastern region Socialist Party
At the time of writing, it looks like the Felixstowe dockers’ strike will go to a third round. Faced with a second eight-day strike from 27 September to 5 October, the company has decided to attempt to stonewall its workers, sticking with its below-inflation offer of 7% plus a tip of £500.
The port, which handles roughly half of all of the UK’s containerised imports, claims to have been able to redirect traffic elsewhere. The UK’s highly repressive union laws help them in this, as the union is compelled to give advance notice of its actions.
This does not mean that the port is unaffected – the redirections will cost money – but it does enable them to try to minimise disruption to their customers.
As well as slashing their workers’ spending power, the company is seeking to transfer engineers from the hourly paid workforce onto new terms and conditions as salaried staff.
This is an attempt to divide the workforce, as well as save on overtime pay. It shows that the company has some kind of forward plan to squeeze the workforce even more in the future.
The company has attempted to intimidate strikers by suspending a number of union members for social media and picket line activity related to the strike. This is an extension of their policy of hyper-vigilance when it comes to disciplining longer-standing workers who are on better pay and conditions. With the Tory government planning to set minimum service levels for strikes in key sectors, this dispute is an example of where such new laws would be applied. As in the past, an attack on dock workers should be seen as an attack on the whole working class.
