Striking Coal Miner goes home.

[ishtat]

In 1984 striking coal miners from South Wales picketed the Power Station next to my Dads farm in Gloucestershire UK. The chances of coal going into a Nuclear Power Station were pretty slim but in the interests of keeping their strike pay, the pickets kept quiet about that. But they got very very bored doing nothing, so when Dad offered them some summer work for cash they went for it. A few months on their pit closed, and eventually they returned to South Wales and unemployment.

6 months later Dad had a call from one of the men asking if he had any permanent work available. The result was that one of the pickets (not the one who originally asked) returned as a full time farm worker. Last month after some 35 years he reached retirement age. On Monday the termination notice on his farm cottage tenancy came into effect and he and his wife left. End of an era. Most people under 50 have no direct memory of those times.

 

[oggbashan]

Locally we had Kent coal mines extending out under the English Channel. Our town had a number of miners who went on strike when it was intended to close all the Kent pits as being uneconomical. Unlike South Wales and Nottingham, the coal mines were a small part of the local economy and the striking miners were well supported by the rest.

But economics meant it was far cheaper to import coal from as far away as Australia at far less per ton delivered than mined in the UK.

 

[Sean]

When Thatcher and her Gestapo bully boys tried to destroy the working class.

 

[ishtat]

When Thatcher and her Gestapo bully boys tried to destroy the working class.

UK coal mine production went into steady decline from 1920 onwards. Labour governments unfortunately closed more mines and almost as much production as Tory governments. Thatcher delivered the coup de grace, but culpability runs much deeper. And then there are the shipbuilding, railways, steel, engineering and manufacturing industries generally. Total absence of planning by pollies of all stripes.

 

[Champakian]

*chuckle*

Coal is always a bad thing until energy becomes dear...

 

[daystate]

As an ex mineral extraction engineer I fully remember the 84 strike as a 14 year old lad whose dad did the full 12 months on strike.Harsh year.
Ffwd 10 years and the tories finally closed our pit.Bastards.