Miners’ leader defended

Press, 4 October 1984, Page 8

Miners’ leader defended

The president of Britain’s National Union of Miners, Mr Arthur Scargill, is not a Communist, according to a visiting British miner. “Arthur Scargill is a committed guy. I don’t think you could find a more committed man, in the cause of the Labour Party and the working man in general,” said a Yorkshire National Union of Miners delegate, Mr Kevin Hughes, in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Hughes and Mr Derek France are touring New Zealand at the invitation of the Federation of Labour. The F.O.L. has launched an appeal to help miners and their families.

Mr Hughes said that some families were living on $l5 a week and were having their power cut off. The union, with the help of money from around the world and especially from other trade unionists in Britain, has set up food centres to ensure that miners and their families get at least one "square meal” a day. “Arthur Scargill is definitely not a Communist. That is ridiculous,” said Mr Hughes. “He is the president of the union and like most presidents has to adhere to policy. Decisions are made democratically and not by one man.

“In fact, Arthur Scargill does not have a vote on our national executive. The only vote he has is the casting vote when there is a tie,” said Mr Hughes.

Yorkshire miners were among the first “flying picketers” in the dispute, setting up picket lines to try to dissuade other miners from working. The police were called in and on many occasions the clashes which ensued have been particularly violent, resulting ii the

death of a miner and hundreds of injuries to both miners and policemen.

Mr Hughes said that what the television viewers had often seen was the retaliation of miners to provocations by the police. The viewers had seldom seen the action which provoked the violence, he said. “There has been a terrific amount of State violence, in the form of policemen beating up our lads, charging dressed in riot gear, wielding truncheons. We have had lads with split heads, collarbones broken, crushed ribs — you name it, we’ve had it,” said Mr Hughes. “We have had our lads charged by policemen in riot gear mounted on horses. They have been beaten on the ground by policemen. They have even had dogs turned on them.

“What you tend to see on television, especially the 8.8. C., is the retaliation to that action,” said Mr Hughes. Mr Hughes said that in his view no unionist had the right to cross an official picket line. “I find it 1 repulsive,” he said.

The dispute could be resolved and the strike called off if the Coal Board agreed not to close coal pits on economic grounds, he said.

“While there have been talks between the National Miners’ Union and Coal Board, there has been no movement because the board has not been prepared to change its stance, while we have endeavoured to come towards a settlement,” said Mr Hughes.

When asked if it was not a management prerogative to decide when a mine was economic.Mr Hughes said

that he could make a pit uneconomic overnight. “I can starve a colliery of investment as management and within six weeks I can show you an uneconomic pit. I can have collieries working the old, outdated, inadequate machinery and I can provide you with an uneconomic pit,” he said.

“Or I can spend some money on it and show you a profitable pit. There is no such animal as an uneconomic pit. It is only economic at the whim and fancy of the National Coal Board.”

Mr Hughes said that the miners were entitled to a say in whether a mine should close because the miners’ livelihoods were at stake.

“We must not forget that it is a nationalised industry, and as far as we are concerned the coal is a national asset and is not something wasted or abandoned,” he said.

“While we are in a particular area mining we ought to mine what is available to mine and move on to new ground after we have exhausted the reserves where we already are. “The thing that really annoys me is that they are wanting to move into new areas and make a fast kill, a quick fast-buck profit, as if that coal is going to disappear. It has been there millions of years, so it can wait another 20,” said Mr Hughes.

He said that the strike was about jobs and the retention of jobs.

“No trade unionist can find a reason why they should not support the National Union of Miners in trying to establish the right to work. If suddenly it has becolfie a crime to fight for the right to work, then I am

a criminal,” said Mr Hughes. The Coal Board offered redundancy payments of up to £30,000 to men with 30 years in the industry, but the union advised its members not to accept them. “How much do jobs cost? Have I the right to sell my son’s job for £30,000? A job does not belong to you to sell,”

Mr Hughes was asked to comment on allegations by another British unionist, Mr Jimmy Reid, printed in an article in “The Press” of September 27, that the rules of the National Union of Miners provided for a national ballot to be held before a national strike could be taken.

Mr Hughes said that what Mr Reid knew about the N.U.M. rule book “could be written on the back of a postage stamp.” “We have a rule which gives permission for areas to apply to the national executive committee to make a strike in that particular area official. In our case that was done and permission granted and in every other case it was granted by the national executive committee, so under the rules of the N.U.M. the area strikes were official.” Is there not a rule which says that before a national strike there has to be a national secret ballot?— There is, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have area-to-area strikes. It is within rules to have area strikes, as long as permission is given by the national executive committee. In every case they have been. Mr Hughes will give his only public address in Christchurch in the conference room of the .Trade Union Centre at 12.1»p.m. today. .