Union officials have warned of "on-going action" and called for renewed negotiations as a second walkout began involving workers at the Port of Felixstowe.

The 1,900 staff started the eight-day action on Tuesday and will remain on the picket line until October 5 as they seek a 10% pay rise to match the rising cost of inflation.

Miles Hubbard, regional officer with union Unite, which is representing the workers, said: “Our members, as ever, will decide what to do next. Our members will decide that, but there is always the possibility of on-going action.”

The port has offered the workers a 7% pay rise with an additional £500, but this was rejected at ballot by 82% of Unite members on a 78% turnout.

Mr Hubbard called for negotiations to be reopened, hinting that there could be a third strike.

He added: “The port should come back to the table to reopen negotiations with the various representatives and start talking to Unite.

“We are very surprised at the attitude of the port, but we are holding out for our original call for a 10% pay rise which was very reasonable in light of the inflation people are experiencing.”

Union convenor Phil Pemberton said the decision to strike was taken because the company had ‘imposed’ the pay rise on the workers, without prior agreement between the parties.

He added: “We believe we deserve more. We believe we deserve a pay rise in line with inflation and the way we achieve that is for both parties to negotiate.

“No workers should have things imposed on them, especially a pay rise and because the company have refused to come back to the table then we felt we had no option but to take further action.”

The second strike could also cause disruption to the supply of £100m of toys, consoles and clothing in the lead-up to Christmas, a data and analytics company has warned.

Russell Group said the combined import and export flow of trade through Felixstowe during the festive season, which included Halloween and Black Friday, would be £947m.

Port spokesman Paul Davey said: “The strike is regrettable but supply chains are more resilient and we are working with importers and exporters to mitigate its impact.

“There was a similar strike a few weeks ago and that had very little impact on supply chains. We believe this will be similar.”