LONDON — Employees at Felixstowe, Britain’s largest container port, are set to strike for eight days after rejecting a 7 p.c pay improve.

Members of the Unite union introduced Friday that they may stroll out on August 21, arguing the 7 p.c pay enhance supplied by the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Firm was “considerably under” inflation.

Felixstowe, in japanese England, handles about 4 million containers per yr — or practically half of the U.Ok.’s container commerce. It advantages from its proximity to the European ports of Le Havre in France and Rotterdam within the Netherlands, amongst others.

“Each Felixstowe docks and its father or mother firm CK Hutchison Holding Ltd are each massively worthwhile and extremely rich,” mentioned Unite Normal Secretary Sharon Graham. “They’re absolutely in a position to pay the workforce a good day’s pay.”

Unite predicts the strike will trigger large disruption since lots of the staff strolling out are crane drivers, machine operators and stevedores.

Additional talks on the conciliation service Acas are as a result of happen Monday.