Miners from 1980s strikes return to picket line … at mining museum | Industrial action

“Who would think we’d do this again?” Arthur Scargill said he laughed at the beginning of this week, a laughter from the old mine standing on the pile line outside the National Coal Museum.

The staff at the Wakefield Museum, many former coal administrators, walked in a disagreement on payment and joined the 87 -year -old leader of the National Mining Affairs Association on Thursday.

Besides, Britain’s last coal mine Kellingley Colliery was closed in 2015, 60 -year -old Russian Kear, who worked as a guide in the museum. Before moving to Selby Coalfield and later to Kellingley, he started to work as a miner at Sharlston Colliery, near Wakefield.

He said that the staff of the museum, especially many of the strikes, were former miners.

“I can say 99% of our, I think you can call us the veterans of ’84 -’85 [strike]”He said.

In the 1980s, Kear lived at home with his family – his mother did not pay money and left the pits, a miner with his father Fred.

“It was terrible,” he said. “The Torah government managed to take some laws very quickly, which stopped that my mother claimed any benefit, so a penny did not come to our house.

“But everyone came together, the community came together. Soup kitchens opened, we can get one meal a day. Miners can rise once a week in the welfare club and you have a carrier bag full of shopping.

“It was really scary,” he added. “He really brought the community together, people helped each other, but when they started to close the mines, they destroyed communities.

“You thought this was a strike to end all the strikes, right?” he said. “There must be war to end all wars like the Great War. But it didn’t work that way.”

This strike is very different. “For the last time, you are against the government with big, deep pockets, and no matter what, you won’t win,” he said.

This time, he hoped that industrial action could be successful. “When we want to retire [the job] It’s not a good income, how will they attract someone else to do what we do? “he asked.

Approximately 40 members of the Unison Union are controversial with the management of the museum on payment. They say that the current proposal – a 5% or 80p increase per hour is less than the previous agreement, which is proposed by the Union for all workers – for all workers. However, the museum said that there was a “increasing offer ve in the previous wage offers and that it was ında equal to a 6% wage increase for many”.

The strike, which will last until September 14, has been planned if a agreement was not reached, more action has been planned, causing the underground tours to be suspended, but the rest of the museum remained open.

“Workers choose to strike as a last resort, Christ said Unison Secretary General Christina McAnea. “The museum staff, not surprising, reached this point when their employers returned with an even worse wage offer.

“The managers should do the right one and pay to the staff, so that the people can continue to learn this important part of the industrial heritage of the country.”

“I don’t want [strike]This is not what I go to there, Ke Kear said. I am 60 years old, so I am the twilight of my work career. I don’t want to do this.

“This is a place where I really like to go and share my inheritance and history, and I don’t want to do it. [striking]. “

The museum spokesman said the payment proposal is higher than the payment settlements in the public sector, including police, schools and other museums.

“This increased proposal was rejected by Unison,” they said. “The Union refused to share our review with its members to see if they wanted to accept.

“As a philanthropist organization, the museum, which is based on external financing and donations, continues to face significant financial pressures.”

Sözcü said that they hoped that “Unison will reconsider their positions ve and that they are determined to work closely with union representatives in the hope of a decision”.