to deliver a knock-out blow.

It triggered a patchy response, with scattered picketing and walkouts.

The Post Office was rocked by an 80 percent walkout of unionised staff, scuppering deliveries.

And work on the Dockyard prison virtually ground to a halt following a lightning stoppage by 100 men -- almost Sealand Construction's entire work force -- amid claims of intimidation.

Bus and garbage truck operators, however, battled to provide a limited service.

The Civil Air Terminal ran smoothly, with former strikers even reporting for work.

And the taxi service and hospitals escaped virtually unscathed.

Most staff in the private sector, it seemed, brushed aside the Bermuda Industrial Union's strike call.

Yesterday saw picketing at Hamilton Docks, Pembroke Dump, and the Washington Street bus depot.

Ten placard-waving, chanting picketers also paced outside Bermuda Forwarders -- the flash point of the dispute.

Among them was former shop steward Mr. Lynn Darrell, whose firing sparked the trouble.

"All we want is justice,'' said BIU organiser Mr. Austin Wade.

Mr. Wade blamed the dispute on years of heavy-handed management at Bermuda Forwarders, accusing them of trying to kill off union representation.

He also stressed 13 of the 15 truckers fired by the company were still unemployed.

Operations manager Ms Valerie Simmons said the picketing had no impact on company business.

"All the trucks which went out came in,'' she said, although dockside picketing proved disruptive.

Ms Simmons went on to accuse picketers and nearby sympathisers of harassment of company workers.

At the Washington Street bus terminal picket lines were set up at both ends, slowing movement of buses.

But the Public Transportation Board reported a 25 percent normal bus service for most of the day.

It was the first service since industrial action began.

One working bus driver, Mrs. Maryann Rogers, said: "This man Ottiwell Simmons is killing the whole Island. I feel somebody must take a stand against all this.'' A seven-strong line of pickets remained throughout the day at Pembroke Dump, brandishing such placards as "USA Sneezes Bermuda Freezes.'' The Works and Engineering department, however, managed to put five garbage trucks on the road.

They collected rubbish in the central parishes, and in the east end.

At the docks union protesters continued to picket, but trucks arrived and left mainly undisturbed. There was no ferry service.

Mr. Jim Pitman, Civil Aviation Director, said he had called for Police reinforcements as a precaution.

But although at one stage union protesters slowed up traffic on the Causeway, there were no problems.

Just 10 out of 200 unionised workers for Aircraft Services Bermuda and Bermuda Aviation Services joined the strike.

At King Edward VII Memorial Hospital only 31 from 350 BIU workers stayed away.

"Patient care was not affected,'' a hospital spokesman said.

Elsewhere, at the Bermuda Telephone Co. Ltd. about half the 200-strong unionised work force failed to report for work, although nobody answered the strike call at the Port Royal Golf Club.

Ten out of 38 unionised workers failed to arrive at Pearman Watlington yesterday.

PROTEST PICKET -- Bermuda Industrial Union pickets march across the entrance to Bermuda Forwarders' Mill Creek headquarters yesterday. Other pickets were staged by BIU members at Pembroke Dump, Hamilton Docks and the Washington Street bus station.

WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED -- Picketers show their defiance outside Pembroke Dump yesterday.