Workers at UK's biggest container port Felixstowe due to begin 8-day strike

More than 1,900 workers at Britain's biggest container port are due on Sunday to start eight days of strike action which their union and shipping companies warn could seriously affect trade and supply chains.

The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis, Qazet.az reports.

"Strike action will cause huge disruption and will generate massive shockwaves throughout the UK's supply chain, but this dispute is entirely of the company's own making," said Bobby Morton, the Unite union's national officer for docks.

"It [the company] has had every opportunity make our members a fair offer but has chosen not to do so."

On Friday, Felixstowe's operator Hutchison Ports said it believed its offer of a 7% pay rise and a lump sum of 500 pounds ($604) was fair. It said the port's workers union, which represents about 500 staff in supervisory, engineering and clerical roles, had accepted the deal.