Pit scabbing peters out

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MINERS in the North Staffordshire coalfield have continued to take action following attempts by winders to break the national overtime ban.

The winders, with the help of large numbers of police, succeeded in breaking the overtime ban at two of the five North Staffs. pits on January 9-10. Mass pickets at the other three pits prevented winders going in.

The winders' branch then called a 24 hour strike as a protest against the picketing. Un the same day their branch was disbanded and the members suspended.

The next day there was a return to work, but miners at Wolstanton colliery were sent home because repairs to winding equipment were still being carried out. In the afternoon, miners at Silverdale. colliery walked out as one of the scab winders clocked on.

The pit is a drift mine, and miners insisted on walking down the drift rather than using cages operated by the scabs. About 900 miners work at Silverdale.

The next day, January 11, they voted unanimously to continue the strike for another 24 hours.

Pickets at Silverdale on January 12 were met by over 100 police, in an attempt to get members of the colliery overseers' union NACODS into the pit for the afternoon shift. Only two NACODS members went in.

Later that day, the colliery management locked out another 250 miners, members of the NUM Power Group.

At 9pm that night, when only six pickets were on the gate, a car drove at them, and nearly ran over Micky Finney, the union branch secretary at the pit. He managed to jump on the bonnet and was carried about 30 yards before he could jump off.

The branch returned to work I LIVE in the south end of Stoke, within a mile or so of both Florence and Hem Heath pits, so the day after the successful picket at Hem Heath I sought out a friend of mine, a Power Group member, to ask him what the dispute was about.

His response to my first question, 'What's it all about, Brian?' was quite simply: 'Greed. Just greed'.

He was disgusted at the action taken by the winders against the overtime ban. And fiom what he said, this was a common feeling among rank and file Power Group members.

The turnout of 150 at Hem Heath, and a similar picket at Florence, on the day the winders intended to break the ban, confirms that. This is in an area not known for militancy.

Brian went on to explain why he thought it was a matter of greed. Winders, it appears, stand to lose the most in cash terms from the overtime ban. But, he said, those who claim to be losing over £50 a week must have been working every waking hour available, including weekends.

Brian went on to emphasise that the overtime ban is linked to rejection of the 5.2% pay offer and of pit closures. The winders' action, therefore, was an attempt to undermine the struggle to get a better standard of living for the majority of workers in the mining industry. And it was being seen as such by rank and file Power Group members. on January 13. Management agreed to allow miners the choice of using the cage or walking down the drift - but the union agreed to a management condition that this should not lead to any loss of production time.

That same day there was the first statement from the Coal Board that the overtime ban was having an effect. Contradicting Coal Board boss Ian MacGregor, a spokesperson at the Stoke-based Western Area of the NCB said that there were shortfalls of phurnacite and homefire.

On January 14, the scab winders announced after an unofficial meeting that they would call off their attempts to break the overtime ban, but the leader of the scabs, former branch secretary Steve Higginson, confirmed that he would be going to a meeting on the 15th in Nottingham with other winders.

On the weekend of the 14th15th, an underground pump at Holditch colliery packed up. Management approached the NUM to carry out the repair.

It appears (so an NUM member told SO) that an NUM official gave the go-ahead without any consultation. But the craft section, the NUM Power Group, refused to help with the repair. They called a 24 hour strike at the pit on the 16th in protest at NUM members carrying out the, job. 700 miners at the pit were sent home.

The situation in the North Staffordshire pits remains tense It is clear that the overtime bar is beginning to have an effect, as repair work normally done at weekends builds up.

The overtime ban is also demonstrating the inadequacy of miners' basic wages.

It is up to the NUM leadership now to go on the offensive and launch a campaign for one-day strikes in preparation for an all-out strike on pay and jobs.

By Paul Cooper I asked Brian about the effect of the usual press campaign ("major split in the union', , etc.). He laughed it off, saying that the 'Sun' had issued its own ballot papers for a return to normal working. "There's one in Florence canteen with a load of comments on it"

If anything, Brian said, the dispute and the attempt by the press to intervene in it had strengthened the miners' resolve. In Stoke at the moment, it seems that the only dissenting voices among miners are from the winders themselves.

Two pamphlets summing up the ideas of Socialist Where We Stand - 20p plus 16p postage. 'How to fight the Tories' - 10p plus 16p postage. Or the two together for 45p including postage. From Socialist Organiser, 28 Middle Lane, London N8 digest A UNE-DAY strike took place on Monday January 16, involving almost all the 19,000 workers employed at the eleven Royal Ordnance Factories. They were protesting against the govern. ment's privatisation plans.

More than 500 workers lobbied Parliament as the Ordnance Factories and Military Services Bill was receiving its second reading, which paves the way for the privatisation of arms production.

According to the govern. ment's timetable, the factories - at Birtley (Newcastle), Bridgwater, Glascoed [Gwent], Patricroft [manchester, Bishoptor (Glasgow), Chorley, Leeds, Radway Green [Cheshire], Black.

independent commercial opera. tions in October.

A SERIES of lightning strikes is threatened by the 6,700 British Airways engineering and maintenance staff, who are already operating an overtime ban. They want an improvement on a two year pay offer, worth 4 per cent this year and 5 per cent in 1985.

So far only two out of the nine bargaining groups - pilots and technical engineering staff -have accepted the offer. The 1750 strong engineering and technical supervisors' sections has voted for rejection.

This means that long-haul flights from Heathrow Airport will be disrupted, and other services interrupted.

The unions claim that pay increases in other airlines are averaging 6.5 per cent. They are against being pushed into a two-year deal in order to prepare British Airways for privatisation.

LONDON Transport engineering and maintenance workers at the Acton rail works in West London voted unanimously to stop work and to join a lobby of Parliament against the government's London Regional Transport Bill this week (Tuesday January 17).

Under the proposed legislation their works along with other underground and bus plants) faces privatisation, which could lead to closure.

The Tories plan to remove control of all public transport in London from the Greater London Council, and to replace it with the corporate bady whose first task would be to split London Transport into two subsidiary companies running bus and tube services respectively. This could lead to profitable services and attractive capital assets being hived off to the private sector.

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