NALGO steward, Manchester city council AROUND 7,000 people marched through Manchester in support of the miners as part of the North West regional TUC day of action on November 17.
Speakers at the rally - in. cluded NUM president Arthur Scargill. Billy Pyo from the no cano execuTe and Sylvia Pye from Against Pit Closures. But coun cil leader Graham Stringer, a one-time left winger, received a say the least. This was hardly surprising: just days earlier he had announced a staggering cuts package. The large contin. march were clearly incensed by the sheer hypocrisy of his speech.
The day was a real success. support for the miners - support many teared would inevitably decline now the pit closure crisis is no longer ront page news. Pockets of workers even took industrial action to join the protest.
success came without the best demobilising offorts of the NWTUC, which restricted the turnout and effectively determined just what kind of 'day of action it was to be. employment law While the company insists that the move is a technicanty to facilitate voluntary redundancies, and should not be taken as an indication of our future employment plans, it is now legally placed to sack as fit.
Around 4600 miners have taken voluntary redundancy in recent weeks, with National Union of Mineworkers presicent accusing British Coal of blackmailing miners into quitting by threatening to reduce redundancy money if Mike Clapham, for Barnsley West and Penis. tone and former NUM national industrial relations officer, argued that British Coal's motivation for sending out the redundancy notices is to dircumvent the colliery review Together, they add up to quality of management.
procedure. In the long term, it wanted to split miners into core and periphery workforces, he alleged. NUM-sponsored Labour MP for Barnsley Central, Eric Disley, pointed out that failure to give adequate notice formed the basis of the mining unions' successful High Court injunc tion against the closures last month: They are making sure they get it right this time, scaled up and watertight.
Both men formed part of a delegation of ich met Britt area Labour MPs which met week. Mr Clarke apparently gave no indication tracking over the closure of the first trancheof ten pits, with the shutdowns now expected on or around January 23.