The Miners Strike

[PIGEONJIMI]

Its 25 years since the Miners took on the Government,just wondered what affect it had on Pigeon racing at the time,i imagine lots of fanciers had to quit the sport due to the fact that the mining villages were a hotbed for pigeons

[Guest j.bamling]

My grandfather & father flew pigeons all through that period my grandfather worked at the mine all his life he is 84 now i think they just had to feed the birds whatever they could get hold of !!! I bet there would be no pigeon racing at all if they had to pay what we have to pay now for corn and fees  ;D ;D

[hotrod]

i can remember it , but just lol, and what about the scabs that went into work ?maybe (one ) or two on here

[dazza]

I can't believe people still use that word 25 years on.

[Guest Gareth Rankin]

I can't believe people still use that word 25 years on.

 

would have to agree with you Dazza

 

 

[Ronnie]

Well you might see it again but with the railworkers and in the not to distant future.

[hotrod]

once a scab always a scab, my mate works for a well known firm WHISKEY (haulage) they went on  strike for pay/conditions( a few scabs went into work , but they were not long in the job), they lost the fight for pay,NOW the few that went in are now facing pay offs, and want the rest to go out on strike for them TO KEEP THEIR JOBS ,double standards or what.ILL REPEAT ONCE A SCAB ALWAYS A SCAB.   IMO

[dazza]

Grow up!!!

[micko and jack]

brilliant thread I was just listening to it on the radio I can remember it it was around the time of the supergrass trials here in the 6 counties so while reading about the trials you just went straight onto the minerstrike a real shameful time for the WHOLE of the trade union movement for people like myself it reminded me of the GREAT DUBLIN LOCKOUT in 1914 after the bosses hired scabs thugs the police the RIC for attacks on workers ( the workers organised by James Connolly a trade unionist who travelled from Glasgow later formed the IRISH CITIZEN ARMY who fought in the 1916 EASTER RISING and it was Connolly who had the socialism put into the EASTER PROCLAMATION) the same tactics used by thatcher,mc gregor and others I'm not trying to have the thread locked moved or anything like that (its to important and interesting) but like others I would love to hear about miners, family members experiences were you or a family member on strike please PM me if you like within weeks of the end of the strike 12 pits in Scotland all closed and that was only the start  of it 1000's out of work and what has the british labour party done in way of trade union rights  nothing time the british trade union movement cut its ties with the labour party (my opinion) pigeon keeping in britain has its roots in the working class areas men working in the pits and the likes not like now when you have MONEY-MEN involved the likes of gangster old yellow grasshopper celtic wings 04 merlin to name but a few

[Guest Paulo]

once a scab always a scab, my mate works for a well known firm WHISKEY (haulage) they went on  strike for pay/conditions( a few scabs went into work , but they were not long in the job), they lost the fight for pay,NOW the few that went in are now facing pay offs, and want the rest to go out on strike for them TO KEEP THEIR JOBS ,double standards or what.ILL REPEAT ONCE A SCAB ALWAYS A SCAB.   IMO

 

I agree with you mate we had a strike at work recently I didn't agree with it and my union didn't support the strike but i still never came in because I wouldn't cross a picket line. Lost three days pay for it and all our office came in the scabs even though it was their union that was striking. Disgusting behaviour. Yet they are happy enough to take the money that the strike produced. Some people have no moral compass.

 

I was just a bairn in the miners strike and was lucky in that my dad hadn't went down the mine like granda and worked in the building trade. So times were hard then anyway cause of the recession but we never starved. My dad told me there was a bit of violence against the scabs in Bearpark and Ushaw Moor but nowt major.

 

I think people still are devided by those events now with people all remembering who scabbed. The fire men had their strike and the ex miner who drove me to work at the time gave them a ton of abuse when we went past in the site van and I asked him why he replied they helped break up the strike lines with the police using fire hoses.

 

[Guest strapper]

i dont see why workers that go in are the so called scabs...as some in this world would have it....just because they have a different opinion why should they be hailed as the ones thats in the wrong?..some of them that worked through the miners strike had no choice if they wanted to see their young families starve.

i think we all want beter work conditions and better pay but why hate the ones that just want to get on with their work.

just like anything else...if you dont want to dont if you do so be it...

 

[Guest Paulo]

i dont see why workers that go in are the so called scabs...as some in this world would have it....just because they have a different opinion why should they be hailed as the ones thats in the wrong?..some of them that worked through the miners strike had no choice if they wanted to see their young families starve.

i think we all want beter work conditions and better pay but why hate the ones that just want to get on with their work.

just like anything else...if you dont want to dont if you do so be it...

 

Unions can be either good or bad they can be too militant or not militant enough but it shouldn't be forgotten that if it wasn't for them we would have no rights or conditions at work at all

 

[Guest strapper]

 

Unions can be either good or bad they can be too militant or not militant enough but it shouldn't be forgotten that if it wasn't for them we would have no rights or conditions at work at all

 

i know paulo m8,fully understand what unions have done for the workers  

 

 

[JOHNNY WISHBONE]

Maggie Thatcher my hero!! She sent the Argies home to think again

[gangster]

......I HATED THATCHER THEN AND  HOPE SHE ROTS IN HELL!!!!!!!!.....A WICKED HEARTLESS *expletive removed*!!!!!!!! MAY SHE PAY FOR HER SINS!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest youngzimmy]

YEA I KNOW WHAT YOU ALL  MEAN I HAD A BLUE BAR WHICH WENT ON  STRIKE AND REFUSED TO GOTO RENNES UNLESS I GAVE IT A DOUBLE HELPING OF MAIZE REALITY IS JUST ROUND THE CORNER OR IS IT YESTEDAYS GONE LIVE IN THE DAY LOL YOU COULD WAKE UP DEAD TONORROW

[gangster]

TRUE......

[dazza]

'You could wake up dead tomorrow' ha ha please tell me how!

[Ronnie]

i dont see why workers that go in are the so called scabs...as some in this world would have it....just because they have a different opinion why should they be hailed as the ones thats in the wrong?..some of them that worked through the miners strike had no choice if they wanted to see their young families starve.

i think we all want beter work conditions and better pay but why hate the ones that just want to get on with their work.

just like anything else...if you dont want to dont if you do so be it...

 

A union is made up of people who agree to stick together they share the good and the bad.I didnt hear of people refusing the pay rises the unions got for them.As soon as times got hard the so called scabs turned coat.Dont you think all them other strikers found it hard as well?

We had a strike a few months ago at work and some people turned coat and went in they even took overtime to cover the depots that where striking.We have just been told our payrises for 2010 will not be had unless we agree to certain terms(less staff doing the same jobs is one condition and doing other separtments work is another).Maybe if them people would of supported the strike we wouldnt be in the position we are in now devide and conquer the oldest trick in the book and us Brits are masters at it so much so we use it on each other.

The way the country is heading i think the miners strikes will be a comparison to the ones we are heading into.

[Chris Little]

Love her or loathe her

Maggie Thatcher, what a legend she was, the Prime Minister with balls, fearless unlike the ones we have had since her.

[jack walker]

hi boys i dont mind being called a scab by a miner who went on strike.Who had it very hard he had to support is family and it must have been very difficult my shoulders are broad enough.to take the abuse off them but to be called a scab by some one who didnt go through the strike .  i aint got words to describe you   ex miner jack walker

[greenlands]

......I HATED THATCHER THEN AND  HOPE SHE ROTS IN HELL!!!!!!!!.....A WICKED HEARTLESS *expletive removed*!!!!!!!! MAY SHE PAY FOR HER SINS!!!!!!!!!!

Your the man for me.Lindsay

ps. all my family were colliers, grand fathers,uncles and father.

pps.the reason I didn't go down the pits was because my father said if I go down the mines he would beat hell out of me.AND HE WOULD.

 

[Guest Paulo]

Maggie Thatcher my hero!! She sent the Argies home to think again

 

Like everyone she had good policies and bad policies. Shes hated in the North East cause she destroyed whole communities and I too hate her for that.

 

On the other hand I admire her for her very British never give in attitrude. At least she knew how to win a war which is more than Tony Blair and Fat Gordie know. She wouldn't have got the whole country embroiled in an unwinnable war in a country that has never been truely invaded and pacified since Alexander the Great did them all.

 

She had the right idea with the Falklands and Loughhall and Gibitraulter.

 

Despite her poor domestic policies she was a patriot and tried to do the right thing for Britain with foreign policy. She took no slaver off the yanks unlike today when we bend over backwards and put their interests ahead of our own country.

 

Shes also a right good looking babe lol

[Guest IB]

Have vivid recollections of miners strike, no winners there I think. Worked on railways at time with close associations through working coal from Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Stirlingshire and West Lothian pits. Really angry they let Polkemmet flood through no internal  co-operation between industry unions, pit deputies (NACODS?) and NUM. The rail unions in Scotland broke their own strike to keep steel works supplied with coal, otherwise blast furnaces would be no more. Stupid to lose your own pit through bloody mindedness.

 

Now nothing up here in Scotland , Coal or Steel.

 

Years later, and now not a member of Union, crossed their picket lines with their agreement. You can still show solidarity - if they are willing to forego a day's pay, then so am I and I donated that to charity - twice. Everybody on winning side there.

[Guest Paulo]

Have vivid recollections of miners strike, no winners there I think. Worked on railways at time with close associations through working coal from Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Stirlingshire and West Lothian pits. Really angry they let Polkemmet flood through no internal  co-operation between industry unions, pit deputies (NACODS?) and NMU. The rail unions in Scotland broke their own strike to keep steel works supplied with coal, otherwise blast furnaces would be no more. Stupid to lose your own pit through bloody mindedness.

 

Now nothing up here in Scotland , Coal or Steel.

 

Years later, and now not a member of Union, crossed their picket lines with their agreement. You can still show solidarity - if they are willing to forego a day's pay, then so am I and I donated that to charity - twice. Everybody on winning side there.

 

Same in Durham no proper industry left at all