Protestors vent astonishment and fury after P&O Ferries jobs bloodbath

At 10.55am, the 59-year-old had a job, a house and a life on the ocean he beloved.

By 11.05am, after P&O Ferries summarily sacked its whole on-board crew in a pre-recorded video message, the job had gone and the house immediately felt within the stability.

“Twenty-five years I’ve served on their f****** ships,” the grandfather-of-five from Hull stated. “Twenty-five years I’ve stored their ships operating and that is how they are saying thanks, by throwing me on the f****** scrap heap.”

What would he do? “I’ve labored ships since I used to be 15. What can I do? Go and man the f****** rowing boats in East Park?”

The staffer – who requested to not be named for worry of shedding severance pay – was simply one in every of lots of of livid demonstrators who joined a protest at Hull’s King George Dock on Friday. Simultaneous demonstrations have been additionally held in Dover and Liverpool.

Collectively, they articulated the sheer anger felt after P&O Ferries took the astonishing choice to axe 800 seafaring employees from its 20-ship fleet throughout the UK – all with out discover, with out session or, it could be fairly stated, with out something approaching widespread decency.

“These individuals have been handled like a used condom,” stated Neil Dawson, a 61-year-old building employee who joined the demonstration dressed as a ship rat. “This can be a grievous assault on them, and on all staff.”

About 100 staff have misplaced their jobs right here in Hull because of the mass sacking. They embrace every little thing from ship engineers to cooks.

The 2 ships they run – the Delight of Hull and the Delight of Rotterdam – run nightly between the 2 cities carrying as much as 1,200 passengers a time. These boats, P&O bosses says, will hold operating from subsequent week – however they are going to now be crewed by cheaper (learn: abroad) company employees.

“We arrived in from Rotterdam yesterday at seven within the morning, obtained an e-mail at eight asking us to attend a video name at 11, after which, there he was, this bald bloke we’d by no means seen earlier than on display, telling us all to sling our hook,” one other crew member of seven years stated. “No-one might consider it. We have been all one another going: ‘Can he try this? Is that allowed?’ Folks have been crying. Actually crying.”

Because the shock turned to anger on board the Delight of Hull, a mutinous crew – supported by ship captain Eugene Favier – initially refused to depart the boat. After they lastly did, at round 4.30pm, many have been nonetheless so dazed, they left all their possessions on board.

“You do two weeks on after which have two weeks off so that you make your cabin your own home, TV, images, garments,” the employee, a father-of-two, added. “So, we got here off and it’s solely later I used to be at dwelling and realised all my stuff continues to be on board a ship I can’t get on anymore.”

It was, he added after a second, the least of his worries. “I can dwell with out my TV,” he stated. “I don’t understand how I can dwell if I can’t pay my mortgage.”

Sacked staff have been joined at Friday’s protest by supporters and union representatives in addition to former Labour chief Ed Miliband and metropolis Labour MP Karl turner.

“The federal government ought to withdraw each contract [from P&O Ferries] with fast impact,” the latter informed the crowds in an particularly well-received speech. “They may say, ‘You don’t get one other penny till each single man and lady is again engaged on board these ships’. The federal government can do so much [to help].”

The federal government, for its half, has already informed P&O Ferries – which is owned by the Dubai-based firm DP World – it isn’t too late to rethink its choice, with Boris Johnson’s spokesperson suggesting there can be “ramifications” if it didn’t accomplish that.

However allusions to such motion did little to placate the fury in Hull.

“It’s like one thing from the Eighties,” stated Carl Burn, a GMB union convenor primarily based in Hull. “This form of behaviour has no place within the twenty first century. These are lives they’re ruining. By way of video hyperlink.”

Pertinently, he stated, Hull wouldn’t forgive P&O Ferries. “This can be a seafaring metropolis and individuals are livid that seafarers can be handled like this,” he stated. “This isn’t an extraordinary job and other people right here understand how a lot respect it ought to include. They usually see that is the precise reverse of respect. Persons are right here as a result of they’re livid.”

What occurs subsequent stays unsure.

The corporate has stated it misplaced £100 million final 12 months. “This isn’t sustainable,” a spokesperson stated. “With out these modifications there isn’t any future for P&O Ferries.”

However the rationale held little water with that 59-year-old employee. He identified – as many have already got accomplished – that DP World made some £8 billion in world income final 12 months.

“What about my future?” he requested. “Who was it that determined that simply didn’t matter?”

What did he hope can be the results of the protest? “I feel they should provide us all our jobs again,” he stated. “With a giant bonus for the emotional misery prompted.”