UK also stops by sea: dockers' strike aggravates transport protests

• Transport Chaos in the United Kingdom before the biggest train strike in 30 years: millions of passengers affected and collapse in London

A strong current of union action continues to spread across the UK at a rate similar to the rising curve of inflation, energy instability and the long economic recession predicted by the Bank of England (BoE).

The

, the main English port for container loading, this week took the witness of the strikes to the employees of the railway industry, while the group of criminal lawyers approved to intensify the dispute that it maintains with the Government regarding the improvement of salary and working conditions.

The

affects almost all industrial sectors and professional associations.

More than 1,900 workers in Felixstowe, in the southeast of England, staged the second of eight days of strike on Monday demanding a wage increase in line with the rate of inflation.

It is a dispute similar to the fight that the unions maintain on other fronts - from cleaning staff to employees of the Post Office and telecommunications companies - with the outgoing Government of Boris Johnson.

The resolution is complicated by the analyzes and economic forecasts that are published almost daily,

, as Labor leader Keir Starmer denounced yesterday.

The new or, more likely, the new prime minister will be announced on September 5.

That same day, criminal lawyers will intensify their labor rebellion even more and adopt a permanent and indefinite strike of 'ex officio' cases paid for by the State, which can sink the judicial system in England and Wales.

This Monday, the research department of the investment bank Citi raised the projection of the

, while salary offers are around 7% in the private sector and an average of 5% in the public sphere. .

By contrast, the inflation rate reached 10.1% in July, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and will be 13% by the end of the year, according to BoE analysis.

Citi adjusts its latest inflation forecast to the imminent increase in electricity and gas rates for domestic consumption.

The industry regulator, Ofgem, will announce this Friday the exact figure of the maximum allowed from October, which will be around 3,500 pounds per year (about 4,100 euros at the current exchange rate) in the energy consumption of a base family.

, as a result of rising prices in international markets for both vital resources.

This estimated peak inflation would exceed the extraordinary rate of 17.8% noted by the ONS during the global energy crisis of 1979.

Felixstowe's owners, the holding company Hutchinson Ports, offered a 7% increase plus a £500 bonus in their last bargaining chip.

The workforce rejected the proposal and their representatives in the Unite union warned that the review is based on a 1.8% rise in 2021. The industrial action, which is scheduled to last until August 29,

and coincides with a series of almost fortnightly stoppages in the national rail network and in the London Underground.

Stevedores in Liverpool, in the northwest of England, are also preparing to go on strike over wages, although they have not yet announced the dates.

The English port affected by the summer protests

in containers.

It moves some four million containers a year and is the second most important commercial maritime border crossing after Dover, in the south of the country.

An analysis by the consulting firm Russell calculates that the eight days of union action in Felixstowe could disrupt the transport of goods worth more than 800 million euros.

The greatest impact will be felt in the distribution of clothing and electronic components, based on the flow of goods detected in August 2021.

Logistics departments and companies will divert their customers' exports and imports to smaller British docks and ports in the European Union, according to the same study.

In fact, the transport firm Maersk has already announced delays in cargo delivery or even the suspension of some contracted services.

for the different segments of the industry, after more than two years of interruptions in the transport of merchandise as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit.

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