Letters
Severe geology
Sir: In dealing with Jimmy Reid's letter (3 November), could I point out that: 1. The decision to close Walton Colliery in Yorkshire was taken after all stages of the coal industry's appeals machinery had been exhausted. It was taken on the grounds of geology; this point was made clear in a letter (dated 22 May, 1978) to the NUM from Coal Board Industrial Rela- tions member G.C. Shepherd who wrote, following the appeal meeting, that the Board's decision was based solely on 'tech- nical and mining considerations'.
There was never any dispute over the availability of coal reserves at Walton, but there was an argument as to whether or not these reserves could be safely mined, due to severe geology. Further representations from the Yorkshire NUM resulted in the Coal Board agreeing to reconsider what had been its final decision.
It was then agreed that a unit at Walton should be developed and worked to deter- mine whether the board or the union had the stronger case. The pit continued in operation for another 18 months, but the geology became so bad that the unit in question could not be worked safely. Even at this point, the decision to close Walton was left to the NUM, and following an underground visit by then Yorkshire Presi- dent Arthur Scargill and the NUM mining engineer to the pit, it was agreed by the Walton Branch that it was no longer possible to work the area without en- dangering the lives of our members. In a press statement issued on 4 December, 1979, Arthur Scargill made the situation absolutely clear, emphasising that Walton was closing for geological and safety reasons only.
As to the demonstration staged outside the NUM's former London Headquarters in January, 1983: if that was strike action, none of the participants (approximately one-half the Head Office staff) conveyed that information to their employers. And, if Mr Reid goes back to his informants, he would find that while some of them did stay away from work for more than one hour, others did not. There were certainly no wages lost.
Peter Heathfield
Secretary, National Union of Mineworkers, St James' House, Vicar Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Previous page
