1984/5 Miners Strike

[Strike]

People might be interested to take a look at a retrospective blog I did about the year I spent on strike as a picket at Westoe Colliery. You can find it at; normanstrike.wordpress.com It has also been published as a book called 'Strike By Name' by Norman Strike. I'm sure board users will find lots of contentious issues to keep them interested. Feedback welcome, positive or negative.

[Jarrow Pete]

Great article Strike,will read it in more detail tomorrow. Still think you where ill advised during the Strike. Why did Scargill not just bring out the face workers, if no coal was produced then the rest of the workforce would have had to be laid off and the goverment would have had to support them. A levy could then have been raised to pay the striking face workers and the strike could have gone on indefinetly. Also what point was made in picketing women staff at Whitburn workshops,surely they and the mechanics there should have been allowed to work as they were not producing coal, so they would have been an extra cost for the NCB to absorb. Sorry to have to say it but you were in my opinion poorly led and advised,there was only one winner in that long strike and that was Arthur Scargill.
At the time of the strike I spent a lot of time working in the Nottingham area and used to drink with a few miners from Worksop, one night a couple of them said they were considering going back to work and they asked my opinion. I told them if I was in their position I did not honestly know what I would do, as a father of three young children I personally would think of them before my job.I also told them if they went back they would for the rest of their lives have the label of scabs if they stayed in the industry. I told them of my own experiences when as an apprentice fitter at Whitburn pit as part of my training I had to work for a month with the wagon way men, the overmen in charge had worked during the 1926 strike and was referred to as a scab even after 36 years. My late father who also worked at Whitburn told me under no circumstances had I to have anything to do with him.

[mickey]

looks a canny read.gonna have a look the morra night when i have a bit time

well done strike,every last one of you men should hold your
heads up high and be proud of your efforts during those hard times.
=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

[heaintheavy]

Here is Norman's diary of the strike. A day to day diary that is a very honest account of an active member of the National Union of Miners.

http://normanstrike.wordpress.com/categ ... tegorized/

[Strike]

Thanks for the positive comments. I claim nothing for it other than its the strike as I experienced it, warts and all.

[mickey]

just read it.
well done strike a very good read =D> =D> =D>