International Miners to ‘take no heed’ of court ban

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 6

International

Miners to ‘take no heed’ of court ban

NZPA-Reuter London

Leaders of Britain’s miners and dockers prepared today to intensify strike actions after a breakdown in talks between unions and employers after seven hours yesterday. Union leaders and employers set no new date for another meeting in disputes which have hit industry and halted the nation’s ports. The National Union of Mineworkers was starting a special two-day conference today on its four-month-old strike, despite a High Court ban against discussions on a key disciplinary issue concerning rebel miners still working. The two disputes, run separately but linked by common cause against the conservative Government’s policies, have led to nervousness in the exchange markets and prospects of higher interest rates.

The “Financial Times” index of the top 30 shares closed yesterday at 793, down 18.6 points on the day, while sterling’s tradeweighted exchange rate was down to a record low against other currencies of 77.2 compared with 77.6 overnight. Britain’s biggest union, the 1.5 million-strong TransBort and General Workers’ 'nion, called out its 35,000 members in the ports on Tuesday after objecting to contract labour’s loading iron ore for a steel plant picketed by miners. The union said that it considered it an attack on a dock labour plan which guaranteed jobs for registered workers.

Union officials reported that cargo handling had stopped at Southampton, Liverpool, London, and other main ports, and after the failure of yesterday’s talks threatened to extend the stoppage to

ferries. The mineworkers’ union appeared set for a confrontation with the High Court on a judge’s ban against the special conference’s discussing or voting on a proposed rule change designed to discipline miners still working. A group of Nottingham miners, the main rebel area, won the injunction yesterday after complaining that they had been denied the chance to mandate delegates because of a sit-in protest at the area’s union headquarters by striking colleagues. The union’s vice-presi-dent, Mr Mick McGahey, told reporters that the union would take no heed of the judge’s ban. The miners’ strike is over the State-run National Coal Board’s plan to close 20 uneconomic pits with the loss of 20,000 jobs over 12 months.

In three Yorkshire mining

villages yesterday dozens of people went on the rampage, attacking a police station and causing more than £lOO,OOO ($211,000) worth of damage at a pit where they set three vehicles alight. National Coal Board officials had to barricade themselves in. Five people were injured and five police vehicles damaged. Eight people were arrested At Rossington colliery, the police escorted Coal Board managers and maintenance staff out of a pit where they had been under siege for 11 hours. As the police vans left, pickets bombarded them with bottles, bricks, and other missiles. The British Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, warned striking dockers that many jobs would be threatened in their industry unless they got back to work.

In rowdy Question Time

exchanges in the House of Commons, she said, “All ports and dockers on the mainland of Europe will be cheering as a result of the decision of the dockers in this country to go on strike.”

The Transport Secretary, Mr Nicholas Ridley, later reinforced her call for management and unions to come to a “satisfactory agreement” to end the dispute. He told members that first indications showed that registered dock workers were on strike at most main ports in the Dock Labour Scheme.

Mrs Thatcher said, “Many jobs will be threatened as ships go to other ports on the Continent. Dockers on strike here will be helping to solve the unemployment problem in Belgium and in Holland and in Germany - and taking away jobs from this country.”