City crippled by double strike

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 8

City crippled by double strike

NZPA-Reuter Memphis (Tennessee) Troops guarded strike-hit Memphis yesterday and tried to cope with a flood of Elvis Presley fans as firemen joined a police walk-out. The Mayor called a press conference and declared that strikers were harassing other workers and trying to shut down the entire city. With fans pouring in for the first anniversary of the rock-and-roll singer’s death, about half the city’s 1400 firemen on Monday ignored their union leaders and walked out in support of police pay demands. “It’s now an attempt by the fire and police unions

. . . to simply close down all operations, governmental or otherwise, in our city,” said Mayor Wyeth Chandler. About 1200 men of the Tennessee National Guard patrolled the streets and guarded 12 of 51 fire stations still open. Memphis has been under 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew since the police struck last week and the firemen’s move came afer a night of vandalism in which National Guardsmen helped arrest about 65 policemen. Windows were smashed at police stations, telephone lines were cut, and shots were fired near the main police station, according to the guardsmen.