Scargill pleads for other workers to back his strike

Press, 8 November 1984, Page 11

Scargill pleads for other workers to back his strike

NZPA-PA London The British miners’ leader, Arthur Scargill, pleaded yesterday for workers to take industrial action in support of the miners. He also launched an indirect attack on the Labour Party leader, Mr Neil Kinnock, who has said he is unavailable for five miners’ rallies because his engagement diary is full. Mr Scargill told supporters in Edinburgh, “When

we planned this rally, these meetings in every mining village and community in Britain, there was not one single engagement in my diary that I was not prepared to break.” At yesterday’s rally, the first of the five, Mr Scargill said that for the miners there could be no turning back. “I want to appeal to rank-and-file workers in the power industry, the steel industry, in every industry in Britain to take note of

what is happening to the miners’ union ..." He was drowned out by loud applause before continuing. In London earlier yesterday the National Coal Board said that hundreds of miners across Britain had broken ranks with their union’s strike, returning to work in large numbers for the second straight day. It said that 357 miners had crossed picket lines for the first time, including small numbers in militant

coalfields in Yorkshire, Scotland and south Wales on top of 802 on Tuesday, the highest number since the strike began on March 12. The Coal Board estimated that about 53,000 of Britain’s 178,000 miners were defying the strike. The move back to work followed the collapse last week of a tenth round of negotiations to end the strike and the board’s subsequent offer of hefty Christmas bonuses to miners who end the strike.