AFTER sixteen weeks of the most bitter strike struggle since the '20s the miners' strike has reached a decisive stage. Neither side is in any position to compromise.
For those who doubted it, the Tory government has made it clear: their aim is to impose a terrific defeat on the NUM and the entire labour movement.
The NUM cannot afford to compromise either. That's why the miners can no longer afford to put up with the open scabbing of other sections of the trade anion and labour movement. The the steelworkers themselves.
Llanwern says on this page: 'If then Llanwern has a future. So even for selfish reasons steelworkers should support the miners.' movement. blockade of steel is vital, not only for the miners but, in helping the strike to victory, is in the interests of the whole movement, including As Ray Davies of the ISTC in the coking pits can be kept open The same could be said for every other section of the labour OFFIGAI they when AFTER A week of mounting tension the first convoy of coal moved down the motorway Talbot to Llanwern last Friday. This followed the refusal of rail union members to continue moving coal to Llanwern after ISTC officials failed to come up with a deal on steel production by Thursday's deadline.
In preparation for the pickets, wire mesh had been welded to lorry cabs. Eyewitness reports spoke of hundreds of police being involved in the operation. All motorway junctions were occupied. Obviously scared of ambushes police lined the side of the M4.
But only token pickets were local NUM feed ship has decided to try and avoid confrontation and has asked the rail unions to cut off all supplies to Llanwern.
While it is possible to supply Llanwern with coal by road it is an. citipated that BSC will have iderable problems moving and hand ng the large quantities of iron ore tha the steel plants need if the rail blockade can be made effective.
The coal and steel industries in South Wales have always been closely linked — with six Gwent pits producing coal just for Lianwern steelworks. The andustry itself is a major user of sieel and in the 1980 steel strike miners refused to use steel despite the threat to their own jobs.
The question of dispensations arose early in the dispute. The deal agreed between the NUM South Wales ecutive and the ISTC and the bosses was generous to say the least. Indeed rail workers Radyr depot, which controls coal movements to the steel works, reckon that at one stage were moving more supplies than usual into Llanwern.
While the dispensation meant only token pickets at Lianwern, Port Talbot was a different story. The steelworks uses foreign coal, imported direct to their own dock. The NUM attempted to agree production levels with the steel unions, but it never bore fruit.
In fact at both Llanwern and Port Talbot near record levels of production have been reached since the start of the Trouble developed at Port Talbot following the refusal Port boilermen to stop the coal, BSC started largescale lorry transhipments out of the plant to England. In effect they were using the steelworks as a scab coal dock!
The negotiations were conducted by the Triple Alliance and held with the blessing of the WTUC. Since 1980 both the ISTC and the Wales TUC have accepted successive con BSC on production and staffing in the slimlining of the blalls thousands of redundancies ductivity at record levels. The Welsh steel plants have been against Ravenscraig and Scunthorpe, and Llanwern has been set against Port Talbot.
There was never a chance of steel leaders agreeing to cut production. Th over the heads of the ISTC leadership directly to steelworkers. But this was a ourse the majority of the South Wale NUM leadership was not prepared t steel take. Huw Edwards, Tower NUM. explained: changed the leaders at the national level by putting Scargill in, who thinks like us. It was then down to the file in areas like Scotland, Wales, and Yorks to put pressure on their are: representatives. If we had left it to the area reps we wouldn't be on strike today - the! compromise.' It was a compromise with steel that the South Wales and it led to a public clash between Emlyn Williams and Scargill. It's been left to an unofficial steel bulletin to print from Tyrone O' Sullivan, secretary of the Abermman strike committee, and of not a member of the executive.
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