Danish Dockworkers Walk Out Over Visit by U.S. Destroyer

Dockworkers stopped work in Copenhagen harbor on Monday, protesting that a visiting U.S. destroyer might be carrying nuclear weapons in breach of Danish government policy.

“We have obtained no confirmation that there are no nuclear weapons aboard,” said a spokesman for the Dockworkers Union, representing the 120 dockers.

The destroyer Hayler, accompanied by the frigate Aubrey Fitch, was met by demonstrators when it arrived on Sunday in connection with the NATO exercise, “Baltic Operation.”

Denmark, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, bans nuclear arms in peacetime but has never ruled out the deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory by allied forces in time of crisis or war.

The U.S. and British governments decline to say if their warships are carrying nuclear arms, and the Danish government has said it assumes NATO allies respect its national policy.