Confected outrage is more about bringing down the Government than helping workers
Source - Daily Telegraph - 22/08/22
Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Felixstowe port found itself in the grip of a crisis. After all, someone at the terminal’s parent company – possibly after being repeatedly hit round the head with a large, wet fish – thought it was a good idea to employ Chris Grayling as a “strategic adviser”, on £100,000 a year for just seven hours a week work no less.
“Strategic” is not necessarily a word that springs to mind when looking back on Grayling’s highlights reel as a Cabinet minister. In fact you would struggle to find a less strategic act than his decision to award a £14m ferry contract to a firm that had no ferries, while serving as transport secretary, though there is a wealth of alternative material to choose from in Grayling’s case.
The selection of outsourcing giant Carillion to run prison maintenance when the company was on the brink of collapse, during his time as justice secretary, must come a close second.
Yet it would be unfair to pin the blame on Epsom and Ewell’s hapless MP for the absolute supply chain catastrophe that threatens to unfold as a result of strike action at one of Britain’s most crucial trade hubs.
The owners of Felixstowe, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Ports, cannot escape blame entirely but, once again, the impression is of a situation that has been brought about by militant trade unions whose primary objective is little more than economic vandalism, dressed up as bravely standing up for their members’ rights.
It’s becoming a depressingly familiar sight: uncompromising left-wing zealots fighting a confected war with profligate private sector “fat cats” on behalf of supposedly short-changed workers.
The primary objective of many is to inflict maximum political damage on a Tory government that they have an ideological and pathological hatred of. It is why they struggle to square the circle at the heart of many of the strikes currently crippling Britain – that much of the disruption disproportionately affects the same hard-working people that they so passionately purport to represent.
If this really was about fighting for better pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of ordinary people then how come some trade union leaders appear to relish in the chaos they are directly responsible for? Some can barely disguise their delight.
“Strike action will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK’s supply chain,” one Unite representative said of the Felixstowe stand-off, as though it was something to celebrate.
It is almost the perfect battleground in terms of wreaking havoc. Felixstowe is one of Britain’s most vital trade hubs – close to half of all the goods that arrive from around the world via cargo ship come through the Suffolk port – and around 1,900 crane drivers, machine operators and stevedore labourers are expected to bring the place to a standstill for eight days.
As much as £700m of trade is expected to be hit, triggering goods shortages at the big supermarkets, and other big high street names such as Marks and Spencer and John Lewis. Major manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover and JCB also expect to be affected.
Maersk, one of the world’s largest container shipping groups, has already diverted three ships to alternative ports in Europe. A further 11 could follow.
The big fear is that the strike is just the beginning of a prolonged period of industrial action that piles further pressure on the price of goods, stoking an inflationary spiral at a time when families are grappling with the most severe cost of living shock in 60 years. Repeat strikes at the ports could even lead to a permanent shift in shipping to the Continent if freight companies lose confidence in Britain’s dockers, meaning some price spikes could become entrenched.
The track record of Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham is telling. This is a leader whose union members balloted to hold 450 strikes in just one year, at a cost of £150m to employers.
The details of the pay row with Felixstowe’s staff are even more revealing. The company says it has offered a pay rise of 8pc on average and closer to 10pc for lower paid workers. Yet, the deal has not been put to employees because the unions insist that members deserve a rise at least in line with inflation – currently at 10.1pc and rapidly heading for 13pc – at which point any pretense of a negotiation practically disappears out of the window.
It is an absurd position to take when the average pay rise in the private sector this year is 7.2pc. For the public sector it is just 1.5pc. Meanwhile, the typical port employee takes home 40pc more than the national average wage, Felixstowe claims.
Yet, Graham’s argument essentially boils down to this: that a company which made profits of £61m in the UK last year, contributing to a £99m dividend handed out by its Chinese parent company, can afford to meet the demands of workers, therefore it should do.
It may well be true that Hutchison Ports has the wherewithal, but that doesn’t mean the request is reasonable or indeed that management should cave in. On the contrary, the offer on the table is already a relatively respectable one.
Companies cannot allow themselves to be bullied or held to ransom in this way. Management haven’t helped their own cause by cancelling Christmas bonuses and only handing out average rises of 1.4pc last year.
But the very idea that workers should be able to effectively name their price is laughable. If every employer capitulated, a lethal wage-price spiral would be nailed on. Militant unions hell-bent on destruction for the purpose of scoring political points must be faced down.
Comments
Post a Comment