According to the Government they are intended to be national hubs for global trade and investment across the UK. The promise of job creation and regenerations as part of the Governments so called levelling up scheme to help communities that have been left behind and the potential to develop them into hotbeds of innovation seems to be somewhat lost in all the recent work done on them so far. Announced freeports in England: East Midlands Airport, Felixstowe& Harwich, Humber, Liverpool city Region, Plymouth &South Devon, Solent, Teesside, and Thames. Five have received final government approval (Plymouth, Solent, Teesside, Felixstowe, and Liverpool) The most Recent Freeports created are in Scotland and Wales, Milford Haven and Port Talbot and Anglesey in Wales and Two in Scotland Cromarty Firth Green Freeport and Forth Green Freeport.  

So far so good, however if we look at what is happening so far, we already see some cronyism in the development of these sites Rishi Sunak has already handed over the first Freeport to Ben Houchen Tees Valley Mayor close friend of his, no coincidence there. And already there has been widespread condemnation in the press over the site being handed over to two local business men for next to nothing in the scheme of things for £0.5 m to lease 70 acres at the site of the old Redcar Bulk Terminal Port. No other opportunities for bids were given, this was unbeknown to the public at the time. As a response we have developed a Freeports Combine where we intend to reach out to all the areas affected by the threat of Freeports we want to get a foothold in the development of these places we want a seat at the table. We want these places to succeed but not at any cost. We want access to well paid jobs, safe jobs, permanent jobs, when the government talk about “light touch regulations” they are called regulations for a reason we do not want any regulations diluting or any of our hard-won rights removed. We need to get in on the ground floor and start developing a joined-up approach across the country, we have now started to gather momentum with Meetings to develop our strategies. Mapping out who is coming to these Freeports? Is something we are in the process of doing. Who is getting contracts, are they Union Friendly?

 Our next steps involve reaching out to Reps and activists to make them aware of what is going on in their respective areas, it seems that the public is not as aware as we would like, there are publications such as By-line times and Private eye that do speak up on this subject but we as a Union need to get it out across our Union and to a wider audience. If only the main stream media would help. We are planning a SharePoint to put all our lessons learned and any information that can be used to negotiate, bargain, or get any other significant foothold on the conversations that may have not happened yet, can we develop a blueprint for a recognition agreement? reach out MPs, Councillors, Mayors in the areas that will contain Freeports. We have spoken to the TUC who are happy that unite are leading the way. Who the key players on the Freeport Boards are, this is something we have already achieved in Liverpool, ask for minutes of the meetings, we can get these but sometimes they are heavily redacted, but any information can be useful. We can also spread the word on our Reps courses and already a timetable of how we do this is being developed with the education department, speak up at Trades Council meetings, take the Information to your CLPs. we will have a presence at the upcoming Policy Conference this year and hope to garner more interest from this. We are also directing people to the available videos that we have done on YouTube and on our own site.

“We want Freeports not Fleece ports”