21 April: Sacked P&O workers demonstrate at DP World offices, London. Photo Workers.
The RMT and Nautilus International, the trade unions representing workers sacked by P&O Ferries, continue to fight the sackings. They have held a series of rallies at ports around the country, including Dover, Liverpool, Hull, Cairnryan and outside the London offices of DP World, P&O’s Dubai-owned parent company.
The 800 workers were sacked on 17 March by a Zoom call with thirty minutes notice. Replacement crews with cheaper foreign labour (paid on average £5.50 an hour) had already been hired through agencies.
P&O’s heavy handed tactics continue. On 30 March 40 cadets were ordered to disembark and await further instructions. The cadets, future workers in our maritime fleet, report that their requests for return of belongings left on board go unanswered.
Two of P&O’s ferries on the Dover–Calais route, the Pride of Kent and Spirit of Britain, have been seized and forbidden to sail by the Marine and Coastguard Agency after inspections found a number of safety deficiencies on those vessels. This has contributed to congestion around the port of Dover.
On the European Causeway, serving the Cairnryan–Larne route, the Agency found 31 infringements of regulations on training, fire safety and lifeboat drills. According to media reports, seven of the agency workers have been sacked for having alcohol while on duty.
In April inspectors from the International Transport Workers’ Federation were refused access to check on the welfare of the replacement crews after the workers had raised concerns, even though the inspectors have the right under the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code to enter all UK ports and board all vessels in UK waters where seafarers request assistance.
DP World is owned by the UAE government, yet receives subsidies from British taxpayers for the Hull–Rotterdam route, and tax breaks in the London Gateway and Southampton “freeports”. Trade unions are forbidden in the UAE.
• A longer version of this article is on the web at www.cpbml.org.uk