Dover is famed around the world for its “white cliffs,” but most important to locals’ livelihoods is its port, twenty-five miles across the water from France. One of the busiest such hubs in Europe, it supports around 22,000 jobs, handling 13 million passengers, 2.5 million freight vehicles, and £100 billion of UK-European trade annually. But with new business practices and the resulting industrial strife, the nature of the port economy is changing — along with the jobs it supports and its relation to the local community.

Much of the change owes to P&O, today Dubai-owned but until 2006 a British shipping and logistics giant. One of the most longstanding ferry operators in the Port of Dover, the firm is a household name in Britain. But in recent times it has enacted a wave of redundancies, 670 in Dover last June alone. During this round of layoffs — spurred by reduced traffic due to pandemic-era travel restrictions — P&O announced its intention to retire the Pride of Burgundy and reduce its overall operation by three vessels.

With the arrival of Irish Ferries threatening its market share, P&O brought the vessel back. After redundancies, it turned to an agency crew — meaning the staff would not be hired in-house by P&O, but by a recruiter paid by the shipping giant to source staff.