Miners rebuff strike call

Press, 10 March 1983, Page 9

Miners rebuff strike call

NZPA London Spurning warnings by their union leaders, Britain's 200.000 coal-miners apparently have backed away from a confrontation with the Government over the threatened closure of unprofitable pits. Strike ballots cast by miners around the country were being counted today, but newspaper and broadcasting reporters who surveyed the coalfields concluded that a strike had been turned down.

Reports from news organisations which have accurately gauged such ballots in the past said it was clear that the vote had been “No." The “Financial Times" said that the ballot had gone decisively against the strike call issued by the miners' leader, Arthur Scargill and the union's national executive. "The Times" also predicted a “No" vote. The forecast result was seen on all sides as a victory for the Conservative Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret

Thatcher, and a serious defeat for Mr Scargill, one of Britain's most militant Leftwing union chiefs. The Conservative Party lost office in 1974 when its last Prime Minister. Edward Heath, was defeated in a General Election held during a bitter and crippling coal strike. Mrs Thatcher, who was elected partly on a platform of curbing trade union powers, must call an election this year or early next, and leads* strongly in public

opinion polls. 1 She has built up an im- i pressive string of victories i over union leaders in the I railways, the health services, and an earlier conflict with I the miners over wages. i The latest vote was ; sparked by the National Coal I Board's plan to close a i money-losing mine in south 1 Wales. < Mr Scargill needed a 55 < per cent vote to endorse the executive’s strike call. 1 The strike vote had been < tied up closely with Mrs 1 Thatcher’s choice of a Scot- 1

tish-born American. lan MacGregor, as next chairman of the heavily subsidised Coal Board. The appointment has not been announced but news of it leaked out last month, alarming miners who feared that Mr MacGregor wpuld repeat the savage cut-backs he has implemented as head of the nationalised steel industry. The British Steel Corporation’s work-force has been cut in half during Mr MacGregor's three years in the job.