SPAIN: UNDERGROUND RAIL STRIKERS DEFY GOVERNMENT THREAT TO BRING THEM UNDER MILITARY DISCIPLINE.

Record ID: 341974

  • Title: SPAIN: UNDERGROUND RAIL STRIKERS DEFY GOVERNMENT THREAT TO BRING THEM UNDER MILITARY DISCIPLINE.
  • Date: 7th January 1976
  • Summary: 1. MV EXT. Metro station PAN closed gates. 0.08 2. MV Bus queue. 0.10 3. MV People scramble to board bus. (2 shots) 0.19 4. MV Bus PAN man on donkey cart. 0.26 5. MV People boarding bus. 0.29 6. CU Bus sign PULL OUT bus terminal, large crowds. 0.34 7. MV AND CU People boarding bus, large crowds. (3 shots) 0.51 8. GV Bus queue. 0.54 9. MV Full bus passes. 1.02 Initials VS 23.35 VS 23.45 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd January 1976 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MADRID, SPAIN
  • Country: Spain
  • Reuters ID: LVA6OPRRFEOREO6TD8H2PGSRNGOO
  • Story Text: Strikers paralysed Madrid's underground rail network for the second day running Wednesday (7 January) defying riot police and a government threat to bring them under military discipline.

    Riot police evicted about two thousand five hundred of the strikers from a church early in the day after they had staged a 36-hour sit-in. The strikers who are demanding more pay merely moved to a second church nearby.

    A spokesman for the workers said that police fired tear gas bomb into a parish hall occupied by about fifteen hundred workers, then baton-charged them as they hurried out.

    The strike is regarded as a test case for labour relations for the new post-Franco Spanish government. A communique after a cabinet meeting said the government was ready to use all means to end the strike, including 'militarisation' of the workers.

    The threat to 'militarise' the workers, a tactic used by the late General Franco during an underground shutdown in 1969, would make the men subject to court-martial for disobedience if they did not report for work.

    The one and a half million people who use the underground system each day crowded on to extra buses and into private cars. There were huge traffic jams.

    SYNOPSIS: Underground train stations remained closed for the second day running in Madrid on Wednesday as strikers paralysed the rail network, defying a government threat to bring them under military discipline. Riot police evicted about two thousand five hundred of the strikers from a church where they staged a 36-hour sit-in, but they merely moved to another church nearby. They are demanding more pay and appear to be testing the new post-Franco government to establish its attitude towards labour relations.

    The one and a half million people who normally use the underground system each day crowded on to extra buses and into private cars, causing huge traffic jams. The government has told the strikers that they would be subject to court-martial for disobedience if they did not report for work....a tactic used in 1969 by the late General Franco during a similar strike by underground rail workers.
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