Peace sign in strike

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 10

Peace sign in strike

NZPA-Reuter London Faint signs of peace emerged yesterday in Britain’s bitter three-mouth coal dispute, but the leader of 180,000 miners was still adamant that a plan to close pits must go. The State-owned National Coal Board and the National Union of Mineworkers agreed at a secret meeting to hold further talks on the dispute, which has all but paralysed Britain’s coal industry. After the meeting, the N.U.M. general secretary, Peter Heathfield, said he was “optimistic” but there was still a long way to go. He said the meeting had

been “tense but cordial” and the next would be as soon as possible. This was a sharp contrast to the first meeting between the two sides last week, which broke up in acrimonious exchanges between the Coal Board’s American chairman, lan MacGregor, and the N.U.M. president, Arthur Scargill. Mr Scargill insisted yesterday, “The only thing that can resolve the present dispute is the withdrawal of the closure plan.” Mr Scargill, who represented the N.U.M. at the talks, commented on Mr MacGregor’s absence from them by saying, “I think Mr MacGregor’s permanent ab-

sence in America would be the best solution.” The strike, which has closed most of Britain’s 175 pits, was sparked by the Coal Board’s proposals to close unprofitable pits, and has split the union and seen violence between strikers and the police on picket lines. Ten picketers were arrested and one policeman injured in a clash between about 2000 picketers and 3000 police officers — some in riot gestr — outside the Orgreave coking works in Yorkshire. The police said this had brought the number of injured there over the last three days to 81 and arrests

to 127. The Conservative Government refuses to intervene in the dispute and the Labour Party’s leader, Neil Kinneck, accused Mrs Thatcher of responsibility for the “paralysis and chaos (to) Britain’s industrial and social life.” The Liberal leader, David Steel, said the latest scenes on picket lines were "an outrage in a democratic society” and urged Mrs Thatcher to support openly a search for a solution. The Coal Board, fighting to save main export contracts jeopardised by the strike, said yesterday it planned to supply Australian coal to Greece.