Notts NUM Area History Part 6
Newstead Colliery FC
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Another good season for Newstead Colliery 1967/68 season.
Notts Combination K.O Cup winners
Recognise anyone?
The colliery is in the background.
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Happy times. Season 1968/69 Notts Junior Cup winners. Notts Combination League winners.
1972 Strike
Miners walked out on strike on 9 January in their first national dispute for 50 years
1972: Miners strike against government
Coal miners walked out at midnight in their first national strike for almost 50 years.
Three months of negotiations with the National Coal Board ended in deadlock four days ago with an offer of 7.9% on the table and the promise of a backdated deal for an increase in productivity.
The 280,000 mineworkers signalled their determination to break the Government’s unofficial eight per cent pay ceiling by refusing to put the offer to the vote.
They are looking for an increase of up to £9 a week – on an average take home wage of £25.
Miners have been observing an overtime ban since 1 November in support of their pay claim, which the NCB estimates has already cost the industry £20m.
Yesterday, the NCB announced it was withdrawing its pay offer as it became clear the miners were not happy to what was on the table.
We are determined to win this battle, however long it may take
South Wales miner
NCB Chairman, Derek Ezra, said: “If we had granted the £120m they had asked for and thus presumably satisfied the mineworkers, we would have landed ourselves in a very serious financial situation.
“The only way of recouping that money would then have been to put prices up and we would have had to put the price of coal up by at least another 15%.”
Mr Ezra said the strike would mean up to £12m a week in lost revenue – and therefore calculations on which previous pay offers had been made were invalid.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is holding meetings at the weekend to discuss support for the strike among transport unions.
The General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, Lawrence Daly, has predicted coal stocks will quickly run down.
“Industrialists in this country will be pressing the Government to get the door open for serious talks,” he added.
Three-quarters of the electricity used in the United Kingdom comes from coal-burning power stations.
The strike comes at a time when the stations are facing long periods of peak demand during the cold weather.
All 289 pits across the country have been closed by the strike. Miners say they are prepared for a long fight.
A south Wales miner said: “We are going into this now, not thinking it’s going to be over in a week or a fortnight. We are determined to win this battle however long it may take.”
They are demanding a £9 a week pay rise on top of an average wage of £25.
The government offered a 7.9% deal – just below its unofficial 8% pay ceiling – but the National Union of Mineworkers refused to put it to the vote. The National Coal Board has since withdrawn the offer.
On 9 February a state of emergency was declared. Two days later a committee of inquiry was established under Lord Wilberforce to investigate the miners’ demands.
All 289 pits in England and Wales are closed and the miners say they are prepared for a long fight.
At 0100 on 19 February a deal was finally reached. The £95m package agreed was below the £120m the National Coal Board said the miners were claiming.
The miners had wrung an extra 15 concessions from Number 10 over and above the Wilberforce inquiry recommendations.
They returned to work on 25 February among the highest paid in the working classes after a seven week stoppage.
1974
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