miners' strike ballot

After the vote, the company said it remains committed to dialogue and reaching an agreement with the union at upcoming government-mediated talks. Some closures would have been required but instead Scargill gambled on all or nothing. The decision to strike was technically illegal, as there had been no national ballot of NUM members, even though the Nottinghamshire and Midlands Coalfields for example, had called for a national ballot. It is not possible to estimate the extent to which the ballot has been manipulated, but present conditions of voting allow great scope for this procedure. He said a national ballot would conflict with last month's executive decision to allow each area the chance to call individual strikes. Although the majority of the miners supported strike action, and were not themselves calling for a national ballot, The Sun saw an opportunity to attack the NUM. Found inside – Page 132As one leading commentary on the miners' strike noted, ... NUM's refusal to conduct a ballot of its members to see if they actually supported strike action. In South Wales the majority of miners are in favour of a strike. The NUM took part in three national miners' strikes, in 1972, 1974 and 1984-85.After the 1984-85 strike and the subsequent closure of most of Britain's coal mines, it became a much smaller union. About 30 miles from Bessemer, miners at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood walked off the job April 1st, after their union, United Mine Workers of America, called the first strike to hit the state's . Found insideHe believed that, on balance, the NUM rule 43 which laid down that 'a national strike shall only be entered upon as a result of a ballot vote of the ... Choose Your Product. Whether such a decision would have turned around the situation in Nottinghamshire is an open question, but it would have . Found inside – Page 60The miners ' strike of 1984 was a desperate attempt to halt the long decline ... No ballot was held to determine whether a strike would be called , an act ... -Pickets and flying pickets were used where people were transported to areas where people did not want to strike. Found inside – Page 94A national ballot , Sir Robert Megarry declared , was ' the very essence of the democratic process , ' and Lord Denning claimed that ' It was a far more ... Extract from report by Directorate of Intelligence (Home Office) on the ballot for a miners’ strike, 2 September 1920 (Catalogue ref: CAB 24/111), SECRET                                     DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE, Report No.70                              (Home Office), IN THE UNITED KINGDOM On 3 March Mr Scargill announced the end of the longest-running industrial dispute in Britain. Advertisement March 19 -- Some 8,000 police guard mines roadblocks across Midlands in the biggest police operation in a . Two separate groups of mineworkers from Yorkshire and Derbyshire went to court in an attempt to have the dispute declared illegal. a face Shortly after the strike began, the third Thatcherite anti-union law, the 1984 Trade Union Act, required ballots before all strikes - whereas miners had simply walked out, picketed out other miners and then taken decisions through their union's delegate structures. THE COAL MINERS. About 2,500 miners, some of whom had arrived in the early hours, cheered Mr Scargill when he addressed them using a loud-hailer from the eighth-floor window of the building. Others came in solidarity from the rolling . Found insidestrike. and. the. call. for. a. ballot. The miners' strike began in March 1984 as a fight to save jobs in collieries threatened with closure. Found insideBased on the Diary of Silverwood Miner Bruce Wilson Brian Elliott ... Notts have had their ballot and it went against a strike by a few thousand but they ... By early March of '85, 60% of miners were still on strike across the country, compared with 74% that time the previous year. 1st March 1984 closed 20 pits - 20,000 job loss. There were 53 arrests and and 11 officers were injured. A local ballot for strike action was held on March 5th in response to the Coal Board's announcement . In early March many miners in the affected areas began strike action, taking the initiative were the miners at the Manvers complex in Yorkshire, who were organized into the NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) as were most miners in the country. 1984 (11th March) Flying pickets arrived in South Wales to prevent miners going to work. But in Nottinghamshire, the majority of miners chose to carry on working, leaving whole towns and villages divided between strikers and "scabs" - those who crossed the picket line. A Thousand Coal Miners Are Still On Strike After 4 Months. A strike may take place, however, and it is possible that some sections of the Triple Alliance may be called out, but if so that part of the strike would be very short lived. Coal miners in central Alabama delivered a massive blow to the United Mine Workers, rejecting its pro-company deal by a vote of 1,006 to 45. The majority for a strike is therefore 71.75% of the 845,647 votes recorded; the total membership of the Miners' Confederation of Great Britain is 904,000 and the unrecorded votes amounted to 6%. One other highly irritating aspect of the strike's legacy is the way people in mining communities try to romanticise and sentimentalise it, by talking about the sense of community, the . November 9, 1941 . National ballot? See the article in its original context from. Last point - above all "The miners and the Left" was a waste of valuable space which could have been filled with info about workers' struggles - in particular about the miners strike, which to me, is the most important industrial action for years and deserves all of our informed support. What happens to your body in extreme heat? He had to leave the room and his deputy Mick McGahey chaired a debate among the 24 union members present. …, Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events.Sign up, All content is available under the Open Government Licence July 28, 2021. "It goes deeper than deep. Warrior Met miner Emanuel Barnfield protests outside BlackRock in Manhattan on Wednesday. This book challenges those images, looks at the impact of the strike on participants, and reflects on ongoing controversies and community pride. The book is organized into three parts. In early chapters participants look back. Found inside – Page 168This district contained a large number of coal miners , who were divided in ... of the miners ' mutual aid society ( La Fraternelle ) threatened to strike ... Found insideThis would determine whether there was any requirement for a ballot, ... Although strike ballots were required under the rule book, the Coal Board was ... Coal miners in central Alabama delivered a massive blow to the United Mine Workers, rejecting its pro-company deal by a vote of 1,006 to 45. Green (law, U. of Southampton) describes the political consciousness of the politically criminalized and the changes in that consciousness resulting from repressive policing and social regulation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc. Hackney/ London E8 The police went to work with a will. Found inside – Page 144On the 31st August , the result of the miners ' strike ballot was declared ; 845,647 votes had been cast in favour of a strike , and 238,865 against . Even MacGregor, in his biography, says that if they had come out a compromise to end the miners' strike would have been forced on the government. The subsequent NACODS ballot, with 82.5 per cent voting for strike action, showed what would have been possible. After the Coal Board launched a pre-Christmas ad campaign promising bonuses a third of miners were back in the mines. It is quite safe to assume that, in the words of a trade unionist: “any promise of increased output by the leaders is not worth the paper it is written on”. Over 1,100 coal workers at the Warrior Met mine in Alabama have been on strike for four months. In Nottinghamshire, a ballot was held and miners voted to carry on working. Miners protest in New York City in support of striking Warrior Met workers. Found insideMiners' strike ballot resulted 611,998 for strike, 104,997 against.” The tactics of the National Union of Railwaymen were not very different from this ... Found inside – Page 160In the 1984–85 miners' strike, notwithstanding the bitterness and violence ... a pre-strike ballot and thus legitimise the action among those miners who, ... Union leaders at a BHP Group mine in Chile will present a new wage proposal to members in the latest sign of easing labor tensions in the top copper-producing nation. During the strike coal production dropped by more than half but the government had stockpiled in preparation and, with supplies coming from the still-working pits in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, power stations were able to stay open. On March 3rd, 1985, the National Union of Mineworkers, led by Arthurs Scargill, voted to return to work after a year-long strike, the longest and most bitter strike, and one that finished without an agreement. The majority for a strike is therefore 71.75% of the 845,647 votes recorded; the total membership of the Miners’ Confederation of Great Britain is 904,000 and the unrecorded votes amounted to 6%. The NUM members put on a brave face, many marching back . There is evidence, however, that the miners’ leaders do not relish the position in which they find themselves and are searching feverishly for a way to escape. Arthur Scargill ordered a strike. THE GREAT MINERS' STRIKE 1984-85 PART ONE: No miner has the right to vote another miner out of a job. This sparked an individual ballot of members, in the autumn of 1984, whereby the ballot obtained an 80% plus vote for strike action, a decision which, if implemented, would have been sufficient to save pits and jobs, and win the dispute which had been brought by the National Coal Board. Within days of the decision to rule out a national ballot, hundreds of police were bussed to picket lines around the country. Found insideMINE LABOUR f Strike on hold The gold and coal mining idustry will have to ... has said it is proceeding with plans following last week's strike ballots, ... Two dissident Yorkshire miners seeking a return to work will ask Mr Justice Warner for Il orders against the union, including a declaration that the strike in their coalfield is unofficial. "There are people here that will not go into a certain pub or a certain shop because 'that's where the scabs went'. Found inside – Page 144On the 31st August , the result of the miners ' strike ballot was declared ; 845,647 votes had been cast in favour of a strike , and 238,865 against . In September 1984 a judge ruled the strike to be illegal because there had been no national ballot after Yorkshire and Derbysire miners took their case to court. Perhaps, more than the failure to hold a strike ballot, was the unwillingness to settle when Sir Iain McGregor and the Coal Board were willing to do so. The Atherton branch of the Lancashire and Cheshire Colliery Deputies Association expressed this view forcibly on August 28th, passing also the following resolution: “That this meeting emphatically protests against the action of the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Colliery Firemen, Examiners and Deputies Association, in demanding a rise in wages and 14/2d per ton off the price of coal without having a mandate from the branch concerned, and that we strongly object to take part in the proposed ballot, of which the first notice we had was from the Press.”, There has actually been little change in the situation; the verbal support of the Triple Alliance is not surprising, in view of the Press campaign, but cannot be altogether discounted as a bluff. "Even now people ignore me if I say hello," says Yvonne Woodhead, 35 years since her husband decided to join miners across the UK in going on strike. The teacher who turned a street into a classroom. Found inside – Page 232... Reading -- Waterside Workers ' Strike , and Huntly Coalin holding back the Bill if that was the miners ' Strike - Second Ballot Bill - Shops and Offices ... There is no change in the situation as regards the engineers; the lock-out notice to electricians, unless it is cancelled, will become effective on Saturday next. In other areas it was much better supported - for example in south Wales, 99.6% of the 21,500 workers joined the action and, a year on, 93% were still not working. . Chanting "Warrior Met has no soul—no contract, no coal," over 1,000 United Mine Workers of America members and their allies picketed outside . It was recently stated at a meeting of officials that such a promise would be “a safe thing to offer and good tactics, as there are always good excuses to offer if the promise is not carried out”. "He lost ballots on wages and other issues. What is Evergrande and is it too big to fail? Video, The teacher who turned a street into a classroom, One migrant’s year-long attempt to cross the Channel. Union. The ballot call in March 1984 was made when tens of thousands of miners were already out on strike, in line with a democratically decided union policy to fight for jobs The Tories and those in the Labour Party, who then and now, denounced the lack of a ballot have a highly selective attitude to democracy. Against 238,865. The miners' dispute began on 6 March after the head of the National Coal Board, Ian McGregor, announced plans to cut production, the equivalent of 20 pits or 20,000 jobs. [28] Instead of a ballot, a special delegates conference will be held on Thursday. Read about our approach to external linking. Voting is . In some areas of the country such as Nottinghamshire miners did not join the strike. a secret ballot of 180,000 pitmen within 28 days on whether the 22-week-old strike should continue. The miners' strike Last updated: 15 August 2008 . Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks to the BBC's John Simpson about events in neighbouring Afghanistan. 1984 (10th March) A ballot of South Wales' miners showed only 10 out of the 28 pits wanted to strike. When she handed them back washed and cleaned, she says some of the wives of those who were still working threw them in the bin. Nov. 9, 1941. Credit. And, the strike action was right so the ballot argument was irrelevant." When we were going out onto the picket lines we had the crazy situation where other striking miners were calling us scabs . "I owe it to miners of days gone by, my family and myself to fight for what we deserve," he said. Mrs Woodhead, who lives in the village of Blidworth, says some people still cross the road when they see her coming. But after the strike we pointed out that, because of the way the issue was used in the movement to cut across the miners' struggle, a ballot should have been called, especially after the rule change which allowed a 50% majority for strike action (instead of the previous 55%). The return to work accelerated as it became clear the strikers had failed even to restrict power supplies when the Central Electricity Generating Board met its highest ever demand for power on 8 January 1985. Workers at Antofagasta Minerals's Zaldivar copper mine in Chile have voted in favour of strike action after rejecting a pay offer, the mine's union said on Friday. Almost a year after it had started, the strike was over. Some had traveled from the pine woods of Brookwood, Alabama, where 1,100 coal miners have been on strike against Warrior Met since April 1. Majority for strike 367,917. Michael Argo has spent 13 years working underground at a coal mine in . The strike by 2,450 Vale miners in Sudbury, Ontario entered its sixth week Tuesday. The majority of miners’ wives appear to dread a strike and might be an important factor in shortening a struggle. VideoOne migrant’s year-long attempt to cross the Channel, Minority streamers have 'a target on their back', The Hollywood hero convicted of terrorism. Only a quarter of the county's miners joined the national strike, according to the National Coal Mining Museum. You are correct insomuch that the Kent miners were amongst the most determined and the most militant branches of the National Union of Mineworkers. By all accounts the vote would have been close, and if it had come out in favour of the strike, most of the miners in Nottinghamshire would probably have carried on working anyway. A veto on a national ballot marks a serious escalation of the dispute, as well as a growing rift between hardline unionists and moderates representing miners in the North West who want to work. The official figures of the Miners’ ballot are: For a strike                        606,782, Against                             238,865, Majority for strike               367,917. And, the strike action was right so the ballot argument was irrelevant." When we were going out onto the picket lines we had the crazy situation where other striking miners were calling us scabs . Some of the small Midland associations could probably carry on for six to eight weeks, but these have little bearing on the general situation. The situation turned ugly when some miners attacked and hurled verbal abuse at moderate union leaders leaving the meeting and members of the media. Workers at Cerro Colorado, the Melbourne-based company's smallest mine in Chile, will vote Saturday after the two negotiating teams hammered out terms in mediated talks this week, the union said in a text message. There are indications that the miners realise that the withdrawal of pump and engine men would endanger their means of livelihood. NACODS held a ballot over this and got an 82% yes vote and were on the verge of striking in September 1984. The vote failed by just nine votes and miners will continue the two and a half year long strike. 3 March 2019. Found insideThe Miners' Strike in Nottinghamshire 30 Years On Harry Paterson. campaign was ready to go for a 'Yes' vote in a national strike ballot. The tensions about the legitimacy of the strike increased within the NUM by the rejection of the results of a ballot in Nottinghamshire on 15 and 16 March 1984. "All we want is a fair contract," said one striking miner. The miners tactics. The official Yorkshire National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) area photographer in 1984-85 was the late Martin Jenkinson and this book of his photographs _ some never previously seen before - serves as a unique social document on the dispute ... 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