Unions Could Ramp Up Pay Demands as UK Inflation Forecasts Rise

Britain is at risk of even more strikes as inflation forecasts soar, tempting unions to push for bigger pay rises.

Investment bank Citigroup said Monday that UK inflation is on track to rise above 18% next year for the first time in almost half a century.

Spiraling prices have triggered walkouts across the country, including on trains, buses and at ports crucial to the UK’s supply chains.

Workers want raises that at least match inflation, said Bobby Morton, national officer for ports at the Unite union, in a Bloomberg Radio interview Monday.

When asked about predictions that the price cap on energy bills could soar even higher, Morton said: “Well if it’s going to be more than £6,000, maybe I need to ask for more than the inflation rate.”

About 2,000 dockers at the Port of Felixstowe began an eight-day walkout on Sunday, halting the flow of goods through the UK’s largest gateway for containerized imports and exports. The Unite union, which represents dock workers at Felixstowe, is seeking an offer closer to the current retail price index level of inflation, at 12.3%. 

Food banks

“People here live week to week,” said Steve Brown, 58, who drives a vehicle at Felixstowe docks and was sitting on the picket line Monday. “Some of them still have to use food banks even though they’re working.”

Brown said that a request for a 10% increase wasn’t unreasonable, and if inflation rose to 18%, he would expect the union to renegotiate any wage deal.

Felixstowe has offered 7.5% and a one-off bonus of £500.

Separately, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, whose members on the rail network went on strike last week, said that an 18% inflation rate would have a “devastating effect” on working people.

“The way to prevent this from happening is for pay packets to increase apace,” Manuel Cortes, the TSSA general secretary, said in an email. “Our union will be doing all it can to protect our members from this looming hardship.”