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
Please lets keep this forum as it was designed to look back at the haulage industry with light hearted banter and memories. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but if we start calling each other “scabs” its going to spoil the enjoyment that hundreds of people get from reading these features. Personally, I believe it was a tragedy for the coal industry (as with any large industry that closes) but whatever or whoever you think is to blame history tells us nothing is ever achieved by striking !!
There’s one point which I’ve missed on here the biggest thugs were the police during the strike also the media were just as bad by distorting many of the news stories to show anyone related to this industry as thugs and Mr Ishift 5 this topic is about the Miners strike
So from first hand experience I was born and raised in a mining village and it peeves me when people don’t no the full facts as in most things in life there’s 2 sides to a story
gazsa401:
There’s one point which I’ve missed on here the biggest thugs were the police during the strike also the media were just as bad by distorting many of the news stories to show anyone related to this industry as thugs and Mr Ishift 5 this topic is about the Miners strike
So from first hand experience I was born and raised in a mining village and it peeves me when people don’t no the full facts as in most things in life there’s 2 sides to a story
Come on gazsa401 I’m just trying to lighten a topic that seems to be going a little sour. I know the thread is Miners Strike but it is featured on Truck Net UK by DRIVERS for DRIVERS not NCB weekly. I also have first hand experience from the other side of the fence hauling raw materials into the steelworks during the dispute and I also work closely today with some ex miners who don’t blame hauliers for the collapse of the coal industry. Nobody came out of this a winner, least of all the miners but unfortunately the miners strike was probably the unions last stand which added the coal industry to the long list of industries such as the motor industry which fell because of terrible relations with unions. I fully agree with your points on the police and media but everybody played a part in this bitter dispute. Supposedly, Scargill brought the miners out on strike to protest at the goverment’s plans to close the pits yes ? If you are in employment and you are told of pending redundancy it seems a strange reaction to go on strike to me but your leader had his interests at heart not the thousands of people that were going to lose their livelihoods. We can’t change history and I don’t know all the facts but if lorry drivers had come out on strike also do you think the coal industry would have survived ?
I was a lorry driver and sometime still drive lorries as I’ve got my own restored lorry
As I’ve previously said on here Scargill was not always right him and Thatcher were as bad as each other
There’s plus and bad points about Unions but there not all run by dictators
Judging by some of the posts on here unions are the root of all evil
Where that’s not the case in my own experience after the 79 strike we never had another dispute right up to when I left some 20 plus years later
In fact we became one of the best road transport companies in the East Midlands to work for regarding pay and terms and conditions so for some contributors on here to claim the strike was the beginning of the end well I beg to differ
Hauliers and drivers are their own worst enemies with rate cutters and stupid drivers who would take a pay cut to drive the next new flashy motor
I couldn’t give a dam what lorry I drove as long it was legal and I got well paid for driving it
The firm I worked for had some of the best traffic going it the customer didn’t want to pay the rate we never carried there stuff how simple is bit because some of the numptys on here they’d work for peanuts and cowboy operators went under cos they chopped the rates to shreds well that’s their own stupidity so to blame a working mans right to withdraw their labour for the demise of a firm is utter tosh
A lot miners were working at profitable pits so how would you feel when your breaking productivity levels week in week out and then all of a sudden your told your gonna lose your job that’s worth fighting for especially if there’s no other work around your area
The loss making pits did deserve to be shut down I don’t dispute that
If the lorry drivers had shown a bit more backing then maybe it could of ended more peacefully and quicker but no matter how many times Thatcher was asked wouldn’t go to any talks to try and solve the problem
She had a her own agenda to shut all the pits down and sell off the family silver to line her greedy pockets and make her and her like very rich people
I hope she’s keeping warm down there shovelling coal to keep her master happy
gazsa401:
I was a lorry driver and sometime still drive lorries as I’ve got my own restored lorry
As I’ve previously said on here Scargill was not always right him and Thatcher were as bad as each other
There’s plus and bad points about Unions but there not all run by dictators
Judging by some of the posts on here unions are the root of all evil
Where that’s not the case in my own experience after the 79 strike we never had another dispute right up to when I left some 20 plus years later
In fact we became one of the best road transport companies in the East Midlands to work for regarding pay and terms and conditions so for some contributors on here to claim the strike was the beginning of the end well I beg to differ
Hauliers and drivers are their own worst enemies with rate cutters and stupid drivers who would take a pay cut to drive the next new flashy motor
I couldn’t give a dam what lorry I drove as long it was legal and I got well paid for driving it
The firm I worked for had some of the best traffic going it the customer didn’t want to pay the rate we never carried there stuff how simple is bit because some of the numptys on here they’d work for peanuts and cowboy operators went under cos they chopped the rates to shreds well that’s their own stupidity so to blame a working mans right to withdraw their labour for the demise of a firm is utter tosh
A lot miners were working at profitable pits so how would you feel when your breaking productivity levels week in week out and then all of a sudden your told your gonna lose your job that’s worth fighting for especially if there’s no other work around your area
The loss making pits did deserve to be shut down I don’t dispute that
If the lorry drivers had shown a bit more backing then maybe it could of ended more peacefully and quicker but no matter how many times Thatcher was asked wouldn’t go to any talks to try and solve the problem
She had a her own agenda to shut all the pits down and sell off the family silver to line her greedy pockets and make her and her like very rich people
I hope she’s keeping warm down there shovelling coal to keep her master happy
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 ?.
I can remember running round Glasgow when the Miners strke was on and Yuill and Dodds tippers were running about with steel mesh fitted over their windscreens. Wern’t Malcolms involved as well?
Priors of Middle Barton Oxon ran their artics with “riot meshing” over them. Ex driver Eddie Harrison told me how when travelling through militant areas, the miners kids were encouraged to spit and throw stones at the trucks as they passed through. Smith and Sons ran coal from Coalville to Didcot power station. Drivers Pete James and Phil Knight have recalled the long queues to get loaded.
i seem to recall a firm from mansfield called e.j.meeks, and i know trhat walker’s of tuxford ran some too which led to them being blacked at some pits when delivering props for hollybank engineering after the strike ended. sorry no pics
jj72:
i seem to recall a firm from mansfield called e.j.meeks, and i know trhat walker’s of tuxford ran some too which led to them being blacked at some pits when delivering props for hollybank engineering after the strike ended. sorry no pics
EJ Meeks had a yard in Newport, South Wales too, they ran lots of Dafs [black cab, goldish writing] theres some pictures in the south wales thread.
there was an opencast site in broad lane bloxwich during the 80’s miners strike,and i remember a firm from nottinghamshire doing a fair bit out of there with green 8 wheel man tippers but i cant remember the name i have seen a photo of one of their trucks on another thread
Richard Read and George Read were the main ones in the Glos/S.Wales areas. I rememebr when it started, Jimmy Allen a subbie of Georges had just bought a new ERF, and had booked a holiday was due to fly out on sat morn, he sent his missus with the kids and he stayed and paid for his truck on the coal runs.
George got his either his MBE or his Knighthood after it, cant remember which. Every truck that went down, came back after a week and had greedy boards highered and mesh fitted to them, Those Reads didnt miss a trick !
could have been richardsons from ilkeston?? I was only young but i can remember my dad gettin a brick in centre of windscreen goin by beavercoates pit ,not a very nice time for coal hauliers!!
They did the work as they had the trucks to keep up with the demand and made the $ good luck to them,Coal was the mainstay of Georges work before the strike Richard did quite a bit too but when the strike started everything with wheels went down there.
Think Murphys from thurmaston (green & orange) B-series 8 leggers & Coales transport from Gt Glenn, (dark green) F7 8 leggers. Were very busy during these times.
G’day
I posted this a while ago on the South Wales thread,but this is another good place for it.
I hope this thread doesn’t become too political,there were some tough times in the early/mid 80’s that’s for sure.
