The local Conservative MP, Natalie Elphicke, and the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, led a protest march in Dover with the leaders of the RMT and Nautilus International unions against P&O Ferries after the sacking without notice of 800 workers in a move the archbishop of Canterbury denounced as a sin.
Angry demonstration against P&O Ferries have taken place at ports across the UK with trade unions leaders and politicians of all sides joining 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.
Despite speaking out against P&O and holding up a RMT poster against the ‘jobs carve up’, Elphicke was heckled by some of the protesters who said Tory laws had led to the sacking. Elphicke responded: ‘Nonsense, it’s bad business behaviour’