Union claims reasons for selling Dover Port are misleading

The union has also attacked DHB claims that privatisation is the only way to generate funds for the port as ‘misleading’ and says that mounting opposition to a sell-off – including not just the port’s workforce but the ferry operators, the local Member of Parliament and Dame Vera Lynn – illustrates the lack of public trust in the plans.

UNITE national officer Julia Long said, “Given the growing strength of feeling in favour of Dover staying in public hands, Mr Goldfield needs to stand before the workforce and give them a pledge that the jobs and standards of this great port are not going to be dragged downwards.

“UNITE is ready to organise this meeting at any time. It is a chance for DHB to hear first hand the fears of workers and their families have about their future. It should also help nail the myth that privatisation is the port’s only hope, something we believe to be misleading in the extreme. If the harbour board wants to raise funds for development, all the powers it needs to do so were granted to it by a 2006 Act of Parliament. Claims that it is sell-off or die off are scaremongering.”