STRIKE AT CENTRAL MARKETS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25083, 15 January 1947, Page 7

STRIKE AT CENTRAL MARKETS

Three thousand workers at the Covent Garden market stopped work immediately they learned that troops had moved into Smithfield to take over the distribution of food supplies held up by the transport drivers’ strike.

The military authorities said that a brigade of Coldstream Guards had taken over Smithfield with 300 or 400 vehicles and 1000 troops acting as loaders. All operations were being directed from a room at Smithfield, and it was stated that everything was going according to plan. All sections of the Smithfield market workers held a mass meeting and issued a statement declaring that it was impossible for them to remain at work while “blacklegs in uniform are doing the work of the striking lorry drivers.” They added that they would not return to work until all troops were withdrawn.

The strikers’ committee, after a session ?, f nearly 10 hours, announced that all central markets were now oh strike. It added: “We shall have the final say in ending this strike.” Correspondents say that the scene at Smithfield was reminiscent of the war. The activities of the troops were watched by 2000 strikers, but there was no ill feeling. Before the meeting a trades union organiser addressed the men and said that the troqps were only doing their job. He admonished the men “to behave and not to congregate.” More than 500 salesmen and clerks are co-operating with the troops. A strike of 200 lorry drivers in Bristol yesterday has spread, involving nearly 800 workers. A Smithfield Market official said that the troops had shifted, in addition to 800 tons of meat, 15,000 cases of corned beef in just over four hours.