UNION officials alleged in April 1947 that the Army and the R.A.F. were being used as a strike-breaking weapon when hundreds of soldiers and airmen unloaded cargoes of beef, poultry and dairy produce from four ships in Glasgow docks.
A strike by dockers was in its 25th day when the above photograph, of R.A.F. personnel, was taken.
“There is no excuse for calling upon the military to unload these ships,” said Michael Byrne, secretary of the Dockers’ Union, “because they are all refrigerated, and there is no danger of the cargoes deteriorating.
An Army spokesman rejected the “strike-breaking” allegation so far as the military aurthorities were concerned. They were unloading the cargoes for the benefit of the Scottish people.
Some 3,800 Glasgow dockers went on strike in March after 500 of their number were declared redundant. Early on, a cargo of 385 tons of bacon from Canada - 14 million rations, including Scotland’s allocation for the following week - which had been brought to Glasgow from Liverpool, had to be discharged at Greenock, where the docks were unaffected by the strike.
A statement on behalf of the dockers said the Glasgow docks had handled 80 per cent of Britain’s war-time traffic and, post-war, had maintained its reputation for quick turnarounds of ships. To accept the 500 redundancies now would be to accept that Glasgow was getting its share of British cargoes - which was not the case.
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