T Miners Jobs

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... Now at Lewis Merthyr they're fighting for jobs «The stated desire of the NCB to discuss what they term "technological unemployment" with the Union is an indication that this is an immediate threat, and a research team under Dr. Alan Burns at the Universit: of Bradford ... (concludes) that without an increase in production levels, between 55% and 74% of existing jobs in the mining the type of nigniy mecnan- also pits in xorksaire ised, highly exploitative Nottinghamshire.

There are no grounds ship by the Communist therefore to believe that the Party-led Scottish threat to jobs in the pits is NUM, the NCB has notched restricted to one or two up a victory with the SAVE SHUTTON Wales, only three currently tries, or increasingly make a profit - while no cost-conscious power less than 20 have been hard stations.

production, and forced to dislocation with the rigorsell their output at depres- ous Tory cash limits has sed prices to power stations been to expose the economOn top of this the impact • Unlike almost any other of the Tory straitjaeket on industry, an astounding NCB investment has been a 98% of the NCB's assets factor in the failure to are financed by interestimplement a modernisation bearing loans..

"(MacGregor) displayed a fundamentalist Mac Gregor will try to do to the pits what has been done to belief in the virtues of the market economy; and his view of the importance of communicating directly with his workforce without the unions "filtering" his views, neatly coincided with (Thatcher's) desire to remove the unions from political power in Britain. In this respect he had already proved his credentials. For while on the bo: of British Leyland, he had persistently urge Michael Edwardes to sack Alan Thornett -Sunday Times, February 6, 1983. ters marched to support them...

Miners will draw their wn conclusions about iddall's professed good tentions: but nobody suld be in any doubt about le intentions of the Tory overnment. They have ffered the NCB chairmanlip after Siddall's contract ‹pires in June to lan lacGregor - the man who as forced through the evastation of the steel dustry in repeated rounds • cutbacks and closures nce he took over in July 780.

When MacGregor ¡sumed control of BSC it id a workforce of 166,000, ough already scheduled fall to 129,000 within six onths.

Survival He prepared a "survival lan" to cut this back to 18,000 by March 1982, 1d contemptuously rushed aside Bill Sirs and le right wing leaders of le steel unions, whose alf-hearted talk of resisnce was no match for lacGregor's combination determination and 'dundancy payments. With the cuts in manning ime an assault on working inditions, destroying emarcation lines and posing levels of exploition equivalent to those sewhere in Europe. But as the market for eel continued to collapse, acGregor pursued the ar on the workforce. One ter another, small plants ere closed - to cut the tyroll to 90,000 by DecemIT 1982.

Held back by governent intervention from his anned closure of the ivenscraig strip mill, acGregor has nevereless published a new anpower target of 75,000, sile hinting that his real n is 60,000, with the ›sure of two of the three itish strip mills.

There is no doubt that • Tory leaders would arly love to see a similar KENT AREA industry are at risk." (NUM submission to Committee).

onslaught on jobs in the coal industry - already begun by Siddall and his back-room planners, and to be completed, they • hope, by MacGregor, the 'mad axeman.

Ironically, it is the particular impact of MacGregor's ruinous activities in cutting back steel production which has precipitated the crisis in the South Wales coalfields.

Nut of 2f nite in Gnath hit by the cut in steel and other outlets. "'the Cowley mole""

burden of interest payments is massive the equivalent of f2.78 per tonne of coal produced.

charges have risen by 642% to a total of {341 million. ( One reason. for these high interest payment loans which account for 73% of NCB borrowing - are charged at an average of 13.8% some 4% higher than loans from other sources.

instance - be paying interest of 16.3% until 1997 on programme at the Aber- ment loan. The beneficiaraman phurnacite plant. ies of this are of course the As a result of this 850 Tories' friends and backers jobs at the plant - and a in the banks and in big further 5,500 mining jobs in the pits that supply it -stand in jeopardy.

A similar pattern of chaos can be traced ised" coal industry. throughout the industry.

Investment over recent years has geared pit production to vanishing maran exaggerated scale which depreciation payments kets in the steel industry, uvier manuiatturing muusduced. And at the same The combination of this unsold coal have been consciously undervalued by ic weakness of the NCB. speed-up, reduced pay closures Cent coal industry in Europe, away the cheapest coal.

government, facing and in prices produced by looking to cut back producplans founkinge expansion and closures.

For abandoned are those in the Vale of Belvoir and East see in the future. steel 1974/75 1975/76 1976/77 1977/78 1978/79 1979/80 1980/81 1981/82 The result is that the Staffordshire, South West Coventry, Margam in South Wales and Musselburgh in Scotland, with reserves totalling 780 million tons.

Since 1974/5 interest Even the giant Selby coalfield development has been delayed - though the type of operation planned there (in which a mere ments is that the govern- 4,000 miners will produce 10 million tonnes of coal, compared to an equivalent 18,000 miners in a conventional coalfield) is plainly 1L -The NCB will for venture the Tories wish to one £120 million governbusiness who cream off profits and reduced taxation from the sweat of miners in the "nationalSTEELWORKS On top of this, the NCB following government guidelines calculates its amounts to a further £2.13 for every tonne of coal protime the Board's stocks of £155 million in an effort to show an economic case for settlements and pit In reality, with a lower level of open and concealed subsidy than any equivalthe NCB produces far and So under tight monetary restraints from the Tory crippling debt burden, and faced by a slump in demand the recession, the NCB is tion, previous preparing for a spate of Among the major new coalfield projects delayed Leicestershire, Park in fm 36.2 50.0 78.0 87.0 138.0 184.7 256.2 341.0 "short life" or 'uneconomic" pits. The closures are merely the thin end of management wedge designed to smash the hard won conditions in the pits which remain open, and to decimate the mining workforce.

Under particular threat are pits in the so-called "peripheral areas" Scotland, South Wales and Kent. But among the NCB's 'hit list' • of 95 are alan mida Veel Now is the time to stop the rot. Already, thanks to an abdication of leaderarea NCB Expenditure on Interest % increase on previous year 12.4 38.1 56.0 11.5 58.6 33.8 38.7 33.1 closure of Kinneil colliery; and in Kent the CP-led area leadership chas failed to prevent acceptance of 135 redundancies at the threatened Snowdon colliery. The stand by the miners at Lewis Merthyr is vital to provide a rallying point against the Tory attack.

The South Wales miners have reason to reject the promises that miners will be simply transferred to other pits or given generous redundancy pay-otis.

The closure of Deep Duffry in 1979 saw 300 transferred to nearby collieries - lengthening the waiting list for jobs in those pits, and further depressing employment levels in the area as whole. Particular problems were felt by older workers, long-term unemployed and school leavers as unemployment climbed to nearly double the average for Great Britain.

If this pattern were repeated elsewhere in the South Wales coalfields the prospects for the working class would become even more bleak than they are at present. Jobs outside coal industry itself would also be axed as transport and a host of related industries were cut back: and the jobs once lost would never return. . .

The case is clear. Jobs must be defended across the board in the mining industry wherever reserves of coal remain to be mined. If capacity is in excess of demand, • then hours of work should be cut back with no loss of pay to the miners who are already heavily exploited in a tough and hazardous job.

The phony figures and fraudulent arguments of Siddall and his Tory backers, and the looming threat •MacGregor hanging over the coalfields must be explained throughout the NUM and the wider labour movement in the fight to defend Lewis Merthyr colliery and drive back the bosses' offensive.

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