MORE than 150,000 miners and railmen are to be asked to embark on a
series of one-day stoppages over threats to up to 30,000 jobs in each of
the two industries.
Other imminent moves in the escalating coal and rail crisis include
the opening today of High Court contempt proceedings against British
Coal and the Government for not resuming production at the 10 among 31
threatened pits where mining has already been halted.
There is also the publication today of a Commons Employment Select
Committee report deeply critical of the Government's handling of the pit
closure programme.
Leaders of five unions, including the NUM, train drivers union Aslef
and main rail union RMT, agreed to synchronise balloting on March 5 on a
one-day stoppage, on a date still to be agreed, to be followed by a
rolling programme of further stoppages if necessary.
The NUM's executive proposed the action and the executives of the
other four unions will meet in the next few weeks to consider following
suit. Other public sector unions will be invited to join the protest.
Lawyers are to be consulted on the wording of the ballot, which will
be in protest at plans to close 31 pits, shedding 30,000 mining jobs,
along with cuts in railway jobs.
Railway unions will meet BR next month over jobs and pay and RMT
general secretary Jimmy Knapp said he had heard rumours British Rail was
planning to cut 25,000 jobs over three years on top of the 5000 already
announced. The first wave could come within weeks.
What with this and the Government's 1.5% public sector pay ceiling Mr
Knapp said he was fairly certain his union's executive would approve the
strike ballot when it meets tomorrow and that the ''spring of
discontent'' he had forecast last November was now looming closer.
NUM president Arthur Scargill said he was delighted with yesterday's
decision. ''We hope that our members will give full support to the joint
balloting that will take place if the executives agree.''
He went on to call on other unions to take similar action to support
the miners and railworkers.
He added: ''No-one wants a dispute. We are finding it necessary to
consider this joint action with our colleagues in the rail industry to
stop the closures of sections of both our industries with the knock-on
effect as far as other jobs are concerned.
''If that threat is removed, then the situation might change.''
If these strikes are sanctioned they will be the first national strike
action by NUM members since the bitter 1984-5 strike, the first by RMT
members since their successful series of one-day stoppages over pay in
1989 and the first major industrial dispute of any kind since the 1990
ambulance dispute.
But a strike programme could seriously embarrass TUC leaders, who have
consistently refused to endorse industrial action over the plan to close
the 31 pits.
The TUC's campaign has centred on jobs and recovery and the next stage
will be an action day, including a lobby of Parliament, to coincide with
publication of the unemployment figures on February 18.
Yesterday TUC general secretary Norman Willis delivered a 500,000-name
petition to Parliament -- the largest submitted by the trade union
movement -- calling on the Government to save the coal industry.
The petition arrived in huge coal sacks along with a 4ft model of a
lump of coal.
''The signatures have been sent in from all over the country in an
effort to keep up the pressure which now shows that there is
overwhelming support for the miners,'' said Mr Willis.
Mr Neil Greatrex, president of the breakaway Union of Democratic
Mineworkers, held an hour-long meeting over pit closures with the Prime
Minister at No. 10 Downing Street yesterday.
He urged the Prime Minister to sack British Coal chairman Neil Clarke
and the entire corporation board.
The new UDM president also asked Mr Major to become personally
involved in the Government's pits review.
''He said he would become more involved and I am a little bit more
hopeful over the future of threatened pits than I was in October,'' said
Mr Greatrex.
Mr Greatrex told the Prime Minister and Mr Heseltine that there was no
trust left between miners and managers.
''I told the Prime Minister they should all be sacked and not allowed
to resign with a big golden handshake.''
Mr Greatrex said he disagreed with the ballot for a one-day strike.
''It is the wrong tactic and is the last thing we need because it
could jeopardise pits,'' he said.
MPs' doubts13
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