Railways next pay challenge

announced that from today they will be withdrawing all safety men from the pit.

The men say they will continue to organize pickets. No matter what the NUM leadership says, they will continue to fight until the end of the strike.

At their meeting yesterday the Merthyr lodge also voted , to support the Young Socialists Rightto-Work campaign and to send a speaker and a delegation when the march comes through Merthyr Tydfil and Aberfan.

Ogilvie lodge secretary Evan Jones said:

I've got great doubts whether the day-wage men will accept, but as far as the men. • on the face are concerned it's very reasonable'.

added: I think the ten reeks' back pay to surface and underground . workers is bait to get the men back to work, but I think both groups should get at least £7 each.' It is a question now of whether the Tories will sacrifice their 7 per cent pay norm to get the miners back to work. Said Mr Jones: 'I think they will have to. Robert Carr said the government would pay whatever the Wilberforce inquiry recommended.' Welsh NUM vice-president Emlyn Williams told me: 'We can make no public statement until after the national executive have considered the inquiry's findings.

'We cane out as a national union and we'll go back as a national union. If they are against it, we will be 100 per cent behind them. If they are for it, we'll go back.' Blaenant lodge secretary Ben Davis yesterday described the new offer as 'totally unsatisfactory after the sacrifices the miners have -made'. He will recommend that it be turned down.

'But we're suspicious as always as to what might be attached to the deal. There are no ifs and buts — it's a defeat for the Tories. That's two votes of no confidence in 24 hours.

'The Tories have been given clear orders to get out. But this is the first round.

'History shows us that the Tories buy people off and prepare for the next time. Now they'll try and pick on weaker sections like the railwaymen. : We're pledged to give our full support to their struggle against the government.' Malcolm Gregory, acting president of Bold colliery, commented: "The offer for underground men is reasonable. But for the surface men it is disgusting.

'All they got was 62 per cent of their original claim. I don't know whether they'll accept it.

'Another objection is that the agreement is for 16 months. The cost of living will go up faster before that period is out. We should put in another claim in November.

It's a pity the Tories are still in. I think the TUC should have called a national strike. But it's a victory in the sense that we smashed the Tories' wage "norm"

The NUR is next. We'll support them every inch of the way. The Tories still have to defeat the working class.' Bob Dickinson, surface worker presiaent Helens cratismen's branch ot the NuMi concerned it's a disgrace. The surface workers work all shifts and get nothing extra for it. The offer still leaves them way behind. Surface men are angry. They do a necessary job and are still underpaid.' FIRST reaction from• NE miners to the Wilberforce report was wary.

Secretary of the Monkwearmouth pit, Sunderland, Harry Tomlinson, said:

'I think this will be enough to get the Durham miner back at work, but whether it will be enough • get all the miners back will be another question. I ONE HELL OF A FIGHT IN TORY KENT-MINERS IN THE Welfare Club at Aylesham, Kent a group of miners had just returned from the funeral of Tommy Briggs. Tommy worked 45 years at Snowdon pit. He didn't drink or smoke, and, except for his last few weeks, he was never away from the pit.

Frank McMahon, his nephew, told me the story of the last months of his life:

'He was sent to Gravel Walk - that's what we call the National Insurance Office in Canterbury - where he was examined by a doctor and sent back to the pit for two weeks.

I was amazed when I heard he was going back to work. Anyway, after insisting on a proMALCOLM BOLD, LANGS per check-up, he was finally sent to hospital and they diagnosed a tumour on the prostate gland. Within a few weeks he was a dead man.' The anger of all miners round the table at the club about a situation that hasn' improved since the days of private ownership of the pits swelled in In this village there's men condemned to go back to work who aren't fit to go. In my opinion, men go to these Tribunals and they're brainwashed that there's nothing wrong with them.

'As they say, go into a mining village and you've got a streetful of widows.

Another older miner intervened to insist that think its 50-50.

But other miners at the pit made it clear they were not prepared to accept any increase in John Hampson, an Ayrshire miner from Killoch, was firmly against the offer.

"This is not enough for the time we have been out on strike', he told me.

there hadn't been a regular risident doctor for some 30 years. And this in a mining village some 7,000 people which is still covered by only one doctor.

An ex-miner Jimmy Park, brother-in-law of Tommy Briggs, added some comments on the tremendous struggle the NUM has had in Kent. 'From Jimmy Duffy to our present branch secretary John McMahon, we have had one hell of a fight because we don't have one Labour MP in Kent. It's been so hard that I would a broken heart, died I then asked Frank McMahon, who has been a face worker at the pit for ten years, about the present strike. "The feeling now is are not going back BRITISH RAILWAY'S annual report — due out in spring — will show a deficit of about £20m for 1971. This compares with a £9.5m surplus in 1970.

The loss is blamed on the decline in freight traffic due to the poor state of the economy. In addition the railways have been losing £2.5m a week in freight charges during the miners' strike and cannot hope to get all this back.

The rail unions. submitted a 'substantial' claim at the turn of the year, although no one will say exactly how much this is.

The Board has sent the claim back for 'reconsideration' and this is what the unions are busy at right now.

Last year the railwaymen were awarded a 94 per cent increase. The government's norm this year, of course, is 7 per cent to 8 per cent. But clearly the railwaymen, also in a nationalized industry, will see no reason why they should settle for any less than the miners.

Transport Minister John Peyton announced a £27m handout to the railways in December, but a wages victory would knock a huge hole in this. British Railways could finish 1972 with a deficit of 510m despite the government's cash injection.

BR's chief, Richard Marsh, former Minister of Transport in he Labour government, will certainly be told by his Tory bosses to stand firm against the railway workers.

unless we get what we asked for. What Gormley said the other day is a lot of rubbish. 'We'd never settle for £4 to £7. He's putting words into Wilberforce's mouth. I know from demonstrations that miners from all over the country are of the same mind. *And just look at Feather. Heath called on him to come back from America and appealed to him to try and get the men back to work. He should have come back weeks ago to go to the country to withdraw workers. 'Anyway he should have jumped in on the postmen's cause a year ago. And why did reather have tobe "alled back from America while the crisis is on?'