The strike on Tuesday by the UK’s largest union Unison over pension provision for public sector workers disrupted trade on wholesale markets.
Liverpool market, for instance, reported quiet trade on Tuesday. “A lot of customers came on Monday instead and others on Wednesday,” tenants association president Geoff Wells told FPJ.
“The closing of the Mersey Tunnel will have stopped some customers coming from North Wales and that area but I know for a fact that some people came overnight and some people went all the way around and over the Runcorn Bridge.”
Fresh Produce Consortium wholesale division president Brian Daykin said the strike was a “disaster” for some wholesale markets. “People can’t go to work if the markets are council-owned and not manned, the rubbish is not allowed to accumulate.” He said the strike had had an effect on markets in the Midlands such as Nottingham and also on Gateshead market.
“The poor weather has compounded our problems, but just as there are signs of spring and the trade picking up this strike happens,” added Daykin.
• Meanwhile, students striking over a youth employment law in France were disrupting fresh produce supplies into the UK as FPJ went to press.
Towns and ports were being blockaded this week with protesters shifting barricades to free some areas as they mobilised to block others on an almost hourly basis.
On Wednesday Rennes, Poitiers, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Lyon were all blocked with strike action scheduled to hit St Malo and Cherbourg.
Students stopped a lorry carrying Spanish salad produce at Perpignan and tipped the entire load onto the road while police reportedly looked on.
“The strike may go on to Friday,” said Edward Darke of Davis (Louth) Ltd. “We have Italian product and Spanish product stuck in France, with pointed cabbage you cannot keep it on a lorry for too long before leaves start to go yellow. We have new crop Portuguese leeks stuck too and on Wednesday morning, Brittany and Normandy were blocked. Two of our packing depots have been blocked.”
