Port strike threatens months of disruption | Business

An eight-day strike at the Port of Felixstowe, Britain’s biggest gateway to global trade, could disrupt supplies to the nation’s supermarkets and exports by the country’s biggest industrial groups through to Christmas, experts are warning.

There are fears that consumers could face fresh shortages of some goods and even higher prices, on top of the galloping inflation already hobbling the UK.

The walkout by 1,900 dockworkers at the Suffolk port could have the biggest single impact amid the wave of strikes in what has been billed Britain’s most widespread industrial action since the 1980s. More than 200,000 rail and London Underground workers, bus drivers, Royal Mail delivery personnel, Post Office and BT workers, as well as refuse collectors are all withdrawing their labour.