Hundreds of dockers in Liverpool will vote on whether to strike over wages and working conditions. The United trade union said that more than 500 employees of mdhc container services, a subsidiary of peel ports owned by British billionaire John Whittaker, would vote on the strike, which could "practically stall" peel port, one of the largest container ports in the UK, at the end of August.

The union said that the dispute was caused by mdhc's failure to provide a reasonable salary increase, adding that the final 7% salary increase was far lower than the current real inflation rate of 11.7%. The trade union also stressed that there had been no improvement in wages, shift schedules and bonus payments agreed in the 2021 salary agreement since 2018.

"The strike action will inevitably seriously affect shipping and road transportation, and cause supply chain shortages, but this dispute is entirely caused by peel port itself. Unite has conducted extensive negotiations with the company, but it refuses to address the concerns of its members." Steven Gerrard, a regional official of unite, said.

As the second largest port group in Britain, peel port handles more than 70million tons of cargo every year. The strike action vote will begin on July 25 and end on August 15.

It is worth noting that the big ports in Europe can no longer stand the toss and turn. The dockers in Germany's Beihai port held a strike last week, which is the latest of several strikes. 

These strikes to a large extent led to the paralysis of cargo handling infrastructure in major ports such as Hamburg, Bremen port and William port.