FREEPORTS UPDATE by

DAN CRIMES, National policy department

Over £175m of public funding for eight Freeport sites in England was announced by the Tory Government in March 2021, in the Solent, Plymouth, Liverpool, Teesside, Humber, Felixstowe & Harwich, the Thames and East Midlands Airport.

Nearly two years on, this neoliberal policy is still ‘under development’ despite claims that 175,000 jobs would be created and RMT members working in Harwich, Birkenhead and on the Solent have heard next to nothing from employers.

Freeports will not create jobs but simply displace jobs from other parts of the country, despite large scale tax relief and deregulation to attract multi-national employers at the expense of workers and the national economy. The union has raised this and other concerns in discussions with other unions through the TUC and there is general consensus that we need protections for workers and local communities from these potentially dangerous new entities.

The secretive nature of contracts handed out within Freeports are a real concern and the Tees Freeport, the flagship for the Tories, is already mired in accusations of financial sleaze and environmental pollution.

And whilst private sector companies across the world are circling Freeports for low tax, de-regulated opportunities, local councils must approve any of these bids and have a key governance role to play.

The SNP Government in Scotland has made some superficial variations to the model in England. Earlier this month, the winning bids for ‘Green Freeports’ were announced, at Inverness & Cromarty Firth and Forth Ports (covering Grangemouth, Rosyth, Leith and Edinburgh airport). RMT members working for Forth Ports and Targe Towing are affected by this. The Green Freeports announcement was made to coincide with Rishi Sunak’s first visit to Scotland since being elected Prime Minister by Tory party members.

In Wales, the Tory Government took longer to agree the £25m seed funding with the Labour administration. The winning bid will be announced in Wales in the summer. The main bids are from Holyhead, Milford Haven and PD Ports (Newport, Cardiff & Port Talbot). The Holyhead bid, being led by Stena is of major significance to RMT members and we are seeking discussions with Stena Ports and Stena Line over the impact on members in the port and on the Stena Line services operating to Dublin.

The Wales Government’s proposals include a requirement to set up a Workers Consultative Forum. We don’t support social partnership but we could use a Forum like this to break open anti-trade union employers in our sectors, such as Irish Ferries.

In Northern Ireland, the Tories are still aiming to create a Freeport but the paralysis that has gripped the Assembly and power sharing agreements in recent years have blocked further developments.

The extreme deregulated, low tax and secretive Freeports model, cooked up by Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and right wing think tank the Centre for Policy Studies, is a means of handing taxpayer subsidy and strategic control over our sea ports to the likes of DP World, with grand standing promises of job creation in deprived, predominantly working class communities. Freeports are, essentially, a cynical political con.

Your union opposes Freeports, as we do privatisation across the transport and energy sectors. Where Freeports or Green Freeports are created, we will fight tooth and nail with other unions, TUC, STUC and Wales TUC to ensure stronger protections for organised workers’ rights and safety, and no reduction in environmental protections.

The NEC has instructed the General Secretary, Mick Lynch to take the next steps in the fight against low tax, deregulation and unsafe jobs in Freeports. RMT port workers will be at the forefront of these actions, and this includes port workers at Heysham and elsewhere who are covered by RMT agreements outside Freeports.