The strike by nearly 2,000 crane drivers, machine operators and stevedores at the Port of Felixstowe has turned this normally tranquil corner of southeastern England into a new battleground between labor and capital as the United Kingdom contends with surging inflation.
The entry to the port, which handles 48 percent of Britain’s container traffic, is festooned with the red flags of the Unite union, and passing motorists honk their horns in support of the strikers.