ben walker:
Around Glasgow during the Miners strike I only remember two Hauliers involved Malcolm and Yuill & Dodds,as far as I know Malclom backed out just after the start and left Yuill & Doods on there own, it was said at the time that British Steel would look after Yuill & Dodds for doing the, Job which I think they did.
Ben Walker
Drove for malcolms during the strike. Seem to remember fuel deliveries where in jepardy and malcolms aquired a tanker to collect fuel himself.remember delivering mining equipment such as hydraulic pit props to notts mines. yuill&dodds had a close relationship with donald malcolm i believe.
i was night trunking for Carryfast at the time,running North Kilworth-Dewsbury,and can remember the miners hanging around on the motorway bridges.couple of firms local to me on the coal run,SH Handley and Coales of Great Glen,making stacks of money i heard.
There are some pics on flickr see Royale431 photo stream ,y&d ,rushcliffe Man .
I was only a nipper at the time , few years back radio 2 did some documentary all about it . Emotional stuff , but I have to say if it happened again I think I’d be bolting the mesh on and trying to pay the mortgage off quick,
Strawgalore:
I was only a nipper at the time , few years back radio 2 did some documentary all about it . Emotional stuff , but I have to say if it happened again I think I’d be bolting the mesh on and trying to pay the mortgage off quick,
Don’t believe some of the rubbish about the money, there was good money to be earned if you grafted, but not what the papers were saying at the time!
I drove for a one man band subbying to sherwoods loading out of Cotgrave to Didcot, Drakelow and Ratcliffe, sometimes with the same load! (allegedly)
Following on from the john.d.m post Barters Transport of Gloucester had some trucks running during the strike.
Ex Haulier:
Does anyone have any photographs of the convoys that were run during the miners strikes ?. Who were the firms that ran it all ?. I seem to remember Yuill and Dodds on the telly, is my memory playing tricks ?.
Sorry no photos, But I remember this, & the village where I once lived & grew up was a mining village, My old man was a miner but was long gone before the strike era, But there was blokes on the picket line that did 5 days protesting etc, & that’s the first time in their working lives in the pits that they had a full week in, The Pit Manager said to them he wondered why they were there & not getting paid for it when they could have been at work & getting paid, But of course they listened to the ■■■■ heads in the Union who in fact were still getting paid , & At the end of the day it all ended in tears for a lot of hard working miners & their famileys, Regards Larry.
i drove for b m cassidy & son during the miners strike , we carted coal from scunthorpe to Orgreave and then reloaded with furnace coke for the return journey. drivers hours and weights went out the window. allways overloaded. i drove a volvo F7 8 wheeler tipper. on it 7 days a week for months.
I’m from a mining village and you SCABS what drove these lorries through out the strike should come to my village and see what deprivation the unwarranted pit closures had caused
I’ve been a trade unionist shop and Senior steward most of my working life
I’d never cross a picket line even it meant losing my job
I bet most of you who moan about your energy prices should reflect that we now own nothing in this country where we have to import most of our energy supplies and are held to ransom by foreign owned power companies who still use imported coal that accounts for 43% of fuel that’s used to make electricity
gazsa401:
I’m from a mining village and you SCABS what drove these lorries through out the strike should come to my village and see what deprivation the unwarranted pit closures had caused
I’ve been a trade unionist shop and Senior steward most of my working life
I’d never cross a picket line even it meant losing my job
I bet most of you who moan about your energy prices should reflect that we now own nothing in this country where we have to import most of our energy supplies and are held to ransom by foreign owned power companies who still use imported coal that accounts for 43% of fuel that’s used to make electricity
Nothing has ever been gained by a strike.It is a prehistoric practice, dating before law and order, where two individuals hit each other till one collapses. The NUM should not have been lumbered by the idiot Scargill that had no interest in his members and just wanted to achieve his communist ideals, and even more personal ones. I know from experience that Arthur Scargill was lavishing himself many times in The Royal County Hotel in Durham, during the height of the strike, like a billionaire dictator, whilst his members were going hungry, often keeping delegations of his members waiting to meet and talk to him, and secretly confessing he felt it was below him to talk to ‘these people’.
Had the NUM been brave enough to choose an honest leader who was prepared to represent his members the mining workforce would have had a better time. However whatever government our electors voted into office before and after the miners strike I am certain that the net result would have been eventually the same except that jobs might have been saved for a few years longer.
Carl Williams:
gazsa401:
I’m from a mining village and you SCABS what drove these lorries through out the strike should come to my village and see what deprivation the unwarranted pit closures had caused
I’ve been a trade unionist shop and Senior steward most of my working life
I’d never cross a picket line even it meant losing my job
I bet most of you who moan about your energy prices should reflect that we now own nothing in this country where we have to import most of our energy supplies and are held to ransom by foreign owned power companies who still use imported coal that accounts for 43% of fuel that’s used to make electricity
Nothing has ever been gained by a strike.It is a prehistoric practice, dating before law and order, where two individuals hit each other till one collapses. The NUM should not have been lumbered by the idiot Scargill that had no interest in his members and just wanted to achieve his communist ideals, and even more personal ones. I know from experience that Arthur Scargill was lavishing himself many times in The Royal County Hotel in Durham, during the height of the strike, like a billionaire dictator, whilst his members were going hungry, often keeping delegations of his members waiting to meet and talk to him, and secretly confessing he felt it was below him to talk to ‘these people’.
Had the NUM been brave enough to choose an honest leader who was prepared to represent his members the mining workforce would have had a better time. However whatever government our electors voted into office before and after the miners strike I am certain that the net result would have been eventually the same except that jobs might have been saved for a few years longer.
Well I’m glad SCABS like you weren’t with us in 79 when we went on strike for a pound an hour that strike brought road transport more in to line with other industries regarding pay
Scargill was wrong in many ways I admit but it was Thatcher who was hell bent on destroying the miners as revenge for the Heath governments demise
A lot of pits were still profitable and the ones that were to close well if they’ve been exhausted then so be it so if as you say know matter who was in power then why prey tell are we still importing millions of tonnes of coal each year?
Thatcher did more harm to this country than all the unions put together
I bet your one of her clones what’s made a fast buck with her I’m alright Jack selfish attitude and also I reckon you’d like us to return the Victorian times where us minions have to dop us caps as you walk past as we’re waiting outside the workhouse got a days work
On a lighter note. My , then brother in law , and three of his mates were all in one car and were stopped by the police who, seeing a car load of blokes suspected them of being Flying Pickets. Unfortunately they were on their way to the Peterborough show to take part in the Clay Pigeon shooting competition and had a bootfull of shotguns and cartridges. - Took some explaining that one. They arrived a bit late - for the show, never mind the competition. Jim.
gazsa401:
Carl Williams:
gazsa401:
I’m from a mining village and you SCABS what drove these lorries through out the strike should come to my village and see what deprivation the unwarranted pit closures had caused
I’ve been a trade unionist shop and Senior steward most of my working life
I’d never cross a picket line even it meant losing my job
I bet most of you who moan about your energy prices should reflect that we now own nothing in this country where we have to import most of our energy supplies and are held to ransom by foreign owned power companies who still use imported coal that accounts for 43% of fuel that’s used to make electricity
Nothing has ever been gained by a strike.It is a prehistoric practice, dating before law and order, where two individuals hit each other till one collapses. The NUM should not have been lumbered by the idiot Scargill that had no interest in his members and just wanted to achieve his communist ideals, and even more personal ones. I know from experience that Arthur Scargill was lavishing himself many times in The Royal County Hotel in Durham, during the height of the strike, like a billionaire dictator, whilst his members were going hungry, often keeping delegations of his members waiting to meet and talk to him, and secretly confessing he felt it was below him to talk to ‘these people’.
Had the NUM been brave enough to choose an honest leader who was prepared to represent his members the mining workforce would have had a better time. However whatever government our electors voted into office before and after the miners strike I am certain that the net result would have been eventually the same except that jobs might have been saved for a few years longer.
Well I’m glad SCABS like you weren’t with us in 79 when we went on strike for a pound an hour that strike brought road transport more in to line with other industries regarding pay
Scargill was wrong in many ways I admit but it was Thatcher who was hell bent on destroying the miners as revenge for the Heath governments demise
A lot of pits were still profitable and the ones that were to close well if they’ve been exhausted then so be it so if as you say know matter who was in power then why prey tell are we still importing millions of tonnes of coal each year?
Thatcher did more harm to this country than all the unions put together
I bet your one of her clones what’s made a fast buck with her I’m alright Jack selfish attitude and also I reckon you’d like us to return the Victorian times where us minions have to dop us caps as you walk past as we’re waiting outside the workhouse got a days work
How wrong you are on every point.
You are making wrong assumptions about me, however I can understand how aggrieved you are if during the 1979 drivers’ strike, you were wanting £1 per hour, where as we had agreed that the rate for 40 hours was £65 before the strike and this was the amount TGWU were requesting.
An ex driver of ours kindly supplied an old pay note from 1977 which is attached and he was driving an HGV class 3. As you will see his wage was £37.43 ( Class 1 was £40 ) plus overtime and bonus giving him a gross wage of £81.90, however I must agree the amount of tax and NI imposed by the then labour government was a disgrace (£21.21) which in fact was reduced by the Thatcher government who arrived after the ‘Winter of Discontent’ of which the Lorry drivers strike was part of. Applying inflation the gross wage £81.90 equates to £431.71, so what was achieved by the strike.
In our case the strike ended by our drivers getting a small reduction in wages, but started a chain of events that caused us to have to close in Jan 1986 with a loss of 250 jobs. Speaking to our ex drivers all admitted they never got as good job again, and as a direct result of the strike more and more drivers started getting paid as a percentage of vehicle earnings, which was a disgrace.
Still today industrial relations between employers and employees are primitive and independent courts should have been set up which took a legally imposed decision in industrial disputes, making strikes redundant. Any union leader, like Scargill who tries to mislead workers into strikes to achieve their political beliefs should be given long prison sentences.
there were rights and wrongs on both sides gazsa , i was contracted to deliver coal to hospitals and as such i reported to num office , they inspected my orders then issued a pass . the pass was presented to the union rep at the pit and he would sanction the load . all good so far , but then running the gauntlet of the yorkshire / durham miners who acted like rabid animals against their own union’s wishes . i for one sympathised with the miners in their fight against maggie , she was a spiteful , vindictive ■■■■■ out to destroy any that opposed her , but the thug element among the miners just fed her more ammunition to fire back . it is heartbreaking to see the devastation it caused in the mining community , and the unseemly haste to put the out sites beyond reclamation was disgusting . but the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of maggie and that barmy little pillock who thought the num was his private army .
