Pit closures

“=‘"from Joe Kenyon Another so-called longlife pit has been WARNED. The Woolley Branch N.U.M. have just held a special meeting. To discuss Union business? No! It called a meeting to further propogate the National Coal Board's subtle device to ease its manpower problems and to intensify its campaign for squeezing the last ounce of sweat from those men unable to escape from the industry and, of course, by reason of its policy, to create further reasons and excuses for contracting the industry still further. The men at Woolley Colliery - one of Yorkshire's biggest pits employing 2,300 men, have been warned that the pit is "in the red" and unless they increase production, the pit may be next in line for the chop. Arthur Seargill, the branch delegate, said, "The purpose of the meeting was to bring home to the men the seriousness of the position. It is better to do something now than towit until the position was more serious. The N.C.B. expects every man to do his utmost if the pit is to survive", he said. Up to now, Woolley has been regarded as one of Britain's longlife pits; hundreds of men have been sent there during the past few months from other pits that have closed down. What sort of a shuffle-arse game are they playing? For Christ's sake, how long are the union leaders going to persist in cracking the whip every time the Coal Board say's MOVE? For much too long now, the union leaders have been too sterile, too witless in meeting the challenge put to them by the Coal Board. If it really is so - and they mst know - that the Covernment is bent on running the industry down, then the union should tell the Board and the Governmént that they will no longer co-operate in the closing of pits unless: firm guarantees are given that alternative SOCIALLY- OWNED industry will be set up to provide attractive employment for the men coming from the pits; that there shall be no unemployment for redundant miners; that protected employment shall be given to the disabled miners who are at present being booted on to the dole-heap when a pit closes; that if the industry is going to be run down, be honest about it and not underhand, as at present. Let's have the cards on the table (the books as well); let it be understood that the responsibility is the Government's and the riks involved recognised and accounted for. The N.U.M. should also advertise to the young men leaving school: