Pit disaster puts miners out of work

The Newsletter, vol. 6 no. 273, 17 November 1962 · scan page 4

Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.

Industra Newsletter From BOB SHAW, Our Scottish Correspondent •HE tragedy at the Barony pit in Ayrshire, where four miners were killed last week at the pit bottom by an avalanche of mud, lighted the problem faced by miners in to protect their jobs.

1,200 men have been declared redundant because collapse of the pit shafts. It was while these shafts wer filled in with dirt that the accident occurred.

The Scottish press reported that the shafts used in the Barony pit were of the square type. These are cheaper than circular shafts but. heing lined van varrio with wood, they are liable to rot and therefore not so sate.

Mining is a dangerous occupation. The danger is heightened by the cheap-jack building of the old coal owners.

When accidents such as this occur, the miner finds that he is not guaranteed other work. The NCB have announced that not all the 1,200 men from Barony will be found employment elsewhere. Those not found jobs at other pits must sign on the dole.

Pit disasters are therefore not only tragedies for the dead but also for the living, who are deprived of a livelihood.

Pits in the Stirling area are being closed, too. 1,420 men are affected here.

In the mining village of Cowie one-third of the men will be thrown out of work. A similar situation faces a number of other communities, some of them fairly large, like Cowdenbeath.

According to a survey conducted by the local council, 17 per cent of families interviewed in the town were either themselves moving or had relatives moving from the district.

DEPENDENT ON MINING 60 per cent of the families in the area are dependent on mining. Almost all those interviewed thought that the district faced a decline in prosperity.

The need for action in the mining districts of Scotland is now urgent.

The leaders of the Scottish NUM should immediately, and unilaterally, call a conference of the areas affected by closures to decide on a policy.

There must be an early reduction in the working shift. All miners thrown out of work by closures or pit difficulties should receive a full wage.

has hightheir fight of the : being no to overtime