[Introductior The future of our pits and today…]

Scan page 8

Introductior The future of our pits and today as never before.

The Government and NCB are determined that 70,000 jobs and 70 pits will go. With them will go our villages.

And that will not be the end. The Tories would like to privatise the coal industry. They are trying to turn the clock back 40 years. They are trying to destroy the nationalised industry past generations fought for.

But there is an alternative.

We should have a properly supported nationalised coal industry.

Even without economic recovery, hug, э new industrial, commercial and domestic m arkets are available for coal. The nuclear. programme must be stopped. Exports be increased.

With more markets for coal and better ways of producing it, working hours underground could be shortened. Miners could retire earlier.

The cold wind blowing through the coalfield is bringing a message of doom But we must fight for our alternative: coal for the country, not dole for the In your pit THE tough and harsh new regime in the industry has brought closures and sterilisation, harassment and sackings. Since lan MacGregor started as the new Chairman of the Coal Board on 1 September 1983, the screws have been turned on pits and works:

The rate of redundancies has been stepped up - it is now 450 per week.

The rate of pit and works closure has increased.

Big modern pits as well as smaller pits are in the as: - machine shifts are cut back drastically; - developments are shelved and seams closed.

NOTICES MHISION.

kill The Government's plans to cut bact only create more unemployment in ; In many mining areas unemploymel cent.

:3P:.:. . ...

::2 2028 3: 8 8 : 24 :3440793 3 0/0082 80079 CAA4IAWIP 6:: 4003. Consultation is being broken off and agreements torn Union Branch Officers face stepped-up harassment. Large valuable coal reserves are being mothballed. And now the Board Chairman wants changes made to the Plai for Coal which would eliminate all units where coal production costs more than £60 per tonne. This would mean the closure of 44 pits - signing the death warrant for collieries throughout the coalfields.

Divide and rule tactics are being used across the coalfield as the NCB tries to set miner against miner, pit against pit, area against area. The bonus scheme, transfer allowances and redundancy payments are the wedges driven between men.

The bonus scheme cuts earnings at low investment pits. increases them at high investment pits. No wonder men are so eager to transfer.

Transfer payments tempt men to transfer from pit to pit. Redundancy pay seems a large sum of money. No wonde men are tempted to sell their jobs, and those of future generations. But it doesn't last long and cannot substitute for doing a skilled job well.

In your street Even the Monopolies and Mergers said: "We recognise that the closure of high cost collieries wol have serious implications for employment in some of the most depressed regions of Great Britain."

With the death of a pit come other closures - shops, loc businesses and leisure amenițies. The loss of spending power in a town losing 700 jobs has been estimated at £2m a year. Bankruptcies and closures are inevitable. Not only small businesses, but also larger companies wi be affected. Engineering and wire, for example, will be forced to cut back production once the pits have closed. Alongside this, the Government is already cutting back o public services. With less rates from the industry, local councils will have little choice but to close schools and libraries. They will be forced to cut social services in the area, at a time when these are most needed. Unemployment causes stress, suffering, increased ill health, more suicides and increased crime. Research put to the House of Lords shows that a rise in unemployment of one million over five years will increast the death rate by 50,000.

This means even more crowded hospitals.

But there is always Social Security. Or is there? With successive government cuts and changes in rules, Social Security is now worth less and harder to get.

If you have £2,500 of savings or redundancy pay you dor qualify for supplementary benefit at all.

If you do qualify, the levels of payment are too low for a decent standard of living the corridors It is clear that the Tory government plans decentralise and privatise our coal industr THIS IS THE MINEWORKERS' OWN CASE: DISPLAY IT OI

Scan page 9

irkers' case No one wants to return to the days of the private coalowners. Accident rates were high, and medical care for injured miners was poor. Wages were low. Hours were often long. Sometimes there was no work. Private owners starved the pits of investment. Miners fought for decades to get the coal industry nationalised.

But shortly after his appointment lan MacGregor said that he would welcome private foreign capital in our coalfields. Economists close to the Prime Minister have been writing that coal is a good candidate for private ownership. The Monopolies and Mergers Commission has recommended that Areas of the Coal Board become independent business units. If this happens, some Areas will go under, and others could be sold to private enterprise.

The Government is withdrawing The 1980 Coal Industry Act was the first attempt to make the coal industry "break even". . It would have forced a programme of rapid and widespread closures. It was modified under pressure of NUM industrial action. HOr JOHN HARRIS By the year 2000, if the Tory Government has its way, nuclear power will provide almost half our electricity. That may mean over 50rh tonnes of coal pushed out of productior or over 100,000 jobs lost.

Each station the siże of the proposed Sizewell B PWR displaces 2.5 m tonnes of coal, or about 5,000 jobs. And the Tories have not been able to conceal their intentions. A leaked Cabinet minute of 23rd October, noted that: "A nuclear programme would have the advantage of removing a substantial portion of electricity from disruption by industrial action of coalminers and transport workers." Under ground:

Pits must stay open to provide the coal we need. And they must remain publicly owned.

Management must negotiate sensibly with the Union, not try to undermine and ignore it. Procedures are there to be followed.

Workers who produce the wealth of the industry must be properly rewarded. Basic pay, which has fallen drastically as a percentage of earnings since 1974, must be increased. Bonus must be consolidated into basic pay.

There must be orderly progress towards a four day week and a proper early retirement scheme.

----- pull-quotes -----

SHIFT NCB. CHANGES SACKINGS PIT CLOSURES

" %% 8. 39 • %2 22 .... Yorkshire area NUM headquarters, Barnsley