'Picket out the pits'

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Miners outside Yorkshire NUM headquarters, Barnsley.

Jim Denham spoke to some of the flying pickets from Kent who had in the Warwickshire area.

John, Pete and Michael are working at Tilmanstone.

Bernard is about the same age, from Betteshanger. Rog and Bob are 19-year old apprentice craftsmen from Snowdown, and Dave is a 19-year old trainee hauler from the same pit.

The four older men have all been working in the industry for 10 to 12 years, the three younger ones started in the industry at the age of 16.

John says. "We've got everything to fight for, and not a lot to lose. Of the three pits in Kent, Snowdown has definitely been earmarked for closure, Tilmanstone have been told that they will be closed unless they massively increased productivity, and only Betteshanger is supposed to be safe.

«With Snowdown and Tilmanstone gone, the Kent mining workforce would be cut by exactly 50%, down to 1,200, and in that situation no-one really believes that Betteshanger would last much longer. Why should they keep it open?

"In the Thanet area, where we come from, without the mines there will be nothing at all left for us, nowhere for us to go"

So the £1000 per year redundancy money is not a very attractive proposition.

Rog. "Hang on a minute! We are under 20, so we don't get anything at all. And my bet is that if we lose this battle, MacGregor will turn round and withdraw the £1000 offer. After all, he threatened to withdraw the pay offer because of the overtime ban, and if we've lost we'll have no comeback - no way of holding MacGregor even to that £1000 offer, or bribe as I call it."

Michael: "But that's not really the point, is it? Those jobs are not executive have u sed so far to get a rolling strike off the ground have been justifie d. I don't blame Scargill for not wanting to put himself out on a limb again after being let down in ballots twice John. "We'll have a national ballot, but in our own time, not when the Sun tells us to have one. Meanwhile, all we can do is picket out the pits that are still working."

Bernard: "But the police are our main problem. 400 of us set out from Kent, but only 180 of us got through. The rest were pulled up on the motorways by the cops. Some were even stopped at the Dartford Tunnel and told not to cross the border of the county.. The cops know which side they are on"

Dave: "Like at Daw Mill yesterday. Just four pickets got to that pit and were faced with 300 police! It's like-a bloody police state round here if you're a picket. And they say they are defending democracy!"

Guessing

Bob. "Our plan is to try to keep the cops guessing, not let them know where we're going next, and to set off really early in the morning to beat them to the pit gates and the morning shift. That's why we'd better not have too much to drink!"

John. "We need to get all our own people out solid before we can turn to other trade unionists for solidarity. How can we ask the rail workers or the lorry drivers to back us when miners in Coventry, Leicester and Nottingham are still working?"

Pete. "Mind you, we've had good support from the NUR and the TGWU. They're blacking all movement of coal to power stations and stockpiles"

John. "Once we've got our people out solid, we'll go to the rest of the movement and say; 'give us your support. Let's have you all out and deal with this government'."

A general strike?

Bernard: "Yes, if that's you want to call it"

Daily Ittril EXPRESS The Daily Elegraph Sun

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been billeted in Birming- ham in order to visit pits

miners in their 30s, all married with children, and all