Angry protests against P&O Ferries take place at ports across UK
Angry protests against P&O Ferries have taken place at ports across the UK after the sacking without notice of 800 workers in a move the archbishop of Canterbury denounced as a sin.
Trade unions leaders and politicians of all sides joined sacked P&O workers in Hull, Dover, Liverpool and Larne to protest against the company’s decision to replace all its crew with cheaper agency workers.
The local Conservative MP, Natalie Elphicke, and the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell led a march in Dover with the leaders of the RMT and Nautilus International unions. They carried a banner that read “Save P&O jobs, save Britain’s ferries”.
Despite speaking out against P&O and holding up a RMT poster against the “jobs carve up”, Elphicke was barracked by some of the protesters. “You voted for hire and rehire,” one shouted. “Tory anti-union laws allow bosses to get away with this,” another said.
“Nonsense, it’s bad business behaviour,” Elphicke replied before leaving the demonstration.
The demonstrations against P&O were backed by a strongly-worded joint statement by the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin. “Ill treating workers is not just business. In God’s eyes, it is sin,” it said.
The statement noted that P&O’s owners, DP World, had made record profits last year and added: “The move is cynically timed for a moment when world attention is on Ukraine. Done without warning or consultation it is inhumane treats human beings as a commodity of no basic value or dignity and is completely unethical.”
The bishops urged ministers to make forceful representations to the government of Dubai and to stop P&O operating until proper consultation had been carried out. There was also a protest at DP
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