MEN STILL OUT

Evening Star, Issue 25620, 22 October 1945, Page 6

MEN STILL OUT

BRITISH DOCK STRIKE TROOPS WORKING SHIPS LONDON, October 20. Hopes that the Birkenhead dockers would * return to work this morning were not realised. Twelve hundred men gathered at the control centre at the Birkenhead docks, hut none signed on. A small meeting yesterday decided in favour of ending the strike. The London position is unchanged, and dockers and clerks are holding mass meetings. While the striking dockers are announcing their determination to stay out until their demands are met. and are planning to persuade non-striking union members to join them, the Ministry of War Transport and the War Office are preparing to increase th« number of troops available to work th« affected ports The ‘ Sunday Express ’ reports that another 6,000 troops from port operating companies have just been moved to England from Europe, and operation orders are ready for the immediate movement of an aditional 15,000 if the strike continues to hold up and jeopardise Britain’s drive for exports

Glasgow, Merseyside, and London dockers reaffirmed their decision to continue to strike, and only the Belfast and Greenock men decided to return. A meeting of Merseysiders decided to send delegates to working ports in an attempt to gain national unity among the dock workers.