Pit Closures Speeded Up

from a mining correspondent The halt in pit closures which Wilson announced at the start of last September, together with the effects of the White Paper, have led to a mich faster rate of closure during the first three months of this year. By the end of March it is expected that 34 pits will be shut and altogether between 80 and 90 are scheduled by the National Cof]l Board to be closed this year. The Prime Minister's action, a move supposed to ease unemployment in mining areas during the first part of the winter, meant that the NCB virtually called a helt to closures for more than three months since it takes this time to notify the unions and the miners of pits that are under considerztion for the axe. It was widely believed that the real purpose of Wilson's announcement was to get tic leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers to vote for the Government at the Labour Party conference. This move could have only been designed to kid rank end file miners because the leadership were well aware that the announcement was meaningless. Lawrence Daly, general secretary of the Scottish NUM, explained at the Scurborough CSE teach-in, held on the eve of the Labour Party conference, that some of the pits “saved" by this measure weren't even on the list for closing. There is no reason to believe that other members of the leadership of the NUM did not. realise this. Before shut-downs could be started again the White Paper, in the middle of November, reduced the industry's target levels. Clotures therefore had to be speeded up compared with the past few years. These closures have only recently restarted. ‘The backlog that has had to be caught up can be seen from the high figure for the first quarter; during the remaining quarters of this year the average will only be between 15 end 19. At the tatest count there were 410 pits. By the end of this year the mumber should be down to around 320 to 330. Once again, the declining areas of Scotland, Northumberland, Durham and South Wales will have to bear the brunt of the policy. Even the target figure of 60-90 this year is only provisfonal at the moment. Not all the closures have been discussed with the unions yet. It is usual for the NCB to hold these talks at least six months before any individual colliury is planned to be shut. There are no signs that anything really seyious is being done to remedy the serious social and human effects of the closures (and the ending of pit communities). Lawrence Taly's exposure of the Wilson trick over pit closures has cert.inly been vindicated.