Liverpool Dockworkers Plan 2-Week Strike, Threaten Further Supply Snarls

Dockworkers at Liverpool's container port will go on strike Sept. 19 to Oct. 3 over a pay dispute, the Unite union said in a statement. Over 560 port operatives and maintenance engineers were offered a 7% pay raise, which the dockworkers say is a pay cut given the 12.3% "real rate of inflation." The port owner also failed to fulfill 2021 promises, including not carrying out a promised pay review and failing to deliver on an agreement to boost shift rotations, the Sept. 2 statement said. Peel Ports, the owner of the Port of Liverpool, said its pay package would have boosted pay by 8.3%.

The strike is set to further disrupt British supply chains given that Liverpool is the U.K.'s fourth-largest handler of seaborne trade. The strike would come as retailers are in peak season restocking inventory before the holidays, Bloomberg reported. The strike threat comes less than a week after dockworkers at Felixstowe ended an eight-day strike without a deal to settle a similar pay dispute, Bloomberg said.