Quote:
Originally Posted by Claymores
I accept some of what you say - it was a bugger that the battle of wills turned into job losses.....it was not only the miners who lost industry, Methil dockyards closed as no high quality coal to move around, shops closed as no money floating about and the area I was raised became an area of multiple deprivation under the European Community (as was then) dafinition. Your "a few hundred" was thousands deep below the poverty line
I strongly remember when I was at Uni at the time, Socialist Worker collectors asking for 20p to stop Maggie starving the kids and I'd give a fiver then not eat for 2 days as skint.
Then Maggie tested the poll tax out on Scotland just to add insult to injury
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Thats about the sum total of the whole situation, Scargill reckoned he had the NCB over a barrel with the knock on effect, and thought he was above everyone being in charge of what was at the time the most powerful union. Given the problems unions had caused the previous decade, government decided not to back down.
So they put Ian McGregor (wont use the nickname we have for him) in to lead the NCB. He planned on bringing in phased closures over 5 years leading to a total job loss of about 20,000 jobs, thats total jobs and not taking into account natural wastage etc.
I had lots of relatives working in the coal industry at the time and most of them didnt want the strike, just a fair chance at not losing their jobs, or if their pit was closing a reasonable chance of being relocated to a different one. Scargill called the strike illegally and the NUM union delegates were not representative of the mining workforce. The strike was called without national ballet and at the time was centred on a colliery in Yorkshire.
In the end because of the strike over 90% of the coal industry was deemed uneconomic. Added to that the suffering of the families, the knock on effect in both mining hinterlands and other related industries, but hey ho, old arthur still had his NUM salary and index linked pension. Well done Arthur.
As for the poll tax, I know I was living in Fife at the time it was introduced, was not impressed by that one.