Sad Day For The Miners

Whatever the politics of the matter, it's a sad indictment that the country that started it in the Industrial Revolution now has no heavy industry to speak of. Steelworks, iron ore mines, coal mines, shipbuilding, railways, motor cars, motorcycles and more, all going down the pan or already disappeared.
as mrs thatcher said if Britain becomes a service industry so be it service industry to what I don't know we have got none left .
 
Why isnt it viable,how is it cheaper to import the coal?How does that work?

Cheap shipping costs and cheaper mining costs. When you are mining a deep coal seam that is a couple of feet thick using a long wall, it gets very hard to compete with an open pit coal mine that may have a seam 10's of feet thick with a low stripping ratio. Cheap bulk shipping has made it viable to transport thermal coal as well as metallurgical coal all around the world.

The price of iron, coal, oil and copper has dropped remarkably fast in the last year. Many coal miners around the world are not making money. In Australia they have laid off 10,000 and that will continue. The iron ore miners aren't far behind either.

If the guys in Wales feel bad, a couple of Aussies in London are laying off 85,000 miners so they won't be having much of a Christmas either.

As Ronald Reagan once said. If you colleagues lose their jobs its a recession, when you lose yours its a depression.
 
Errr... so you're comparing job losses over a 6 year term of government with those during an 11 year term.... which is almost double the number of years? Being a cynic I think you can stroke statistics to 'prove' pretty much anything.
Yes totally agree with you.
Those were not my words or figures but taken straight out of a left wing article, just to reply to a post.
All I know is, it is very sad for the families, and not all the sacked miners can fill up the shelves in tescos, and I'm sure they wouldn't want to
 
Lets get the terminology right please - The miners are not being sacked - they are being made redundant from their current place of work. You need to be guilty of misconduct etc etc to get the sack.
I do have real sympathy with them & their families - I know from personal experience (more than once) what it feels like to be made redundant. It ain't at all nice. --- BUT they should have seen it coming (the signs have been there for ages) & got their skates on to find alternative work opportunities. As always the brighter ones will have already done this & others will have sat it out to ensure they get the full redundancy payouts.
Those who get up & go looking for opportunities will find them & not surprisingly get support - those who sit back bemoaning their situation are their own worst enemies & shouldn't be pandered to.

Ian
 
To be far the OP has not said they were sacked and yes redundancies is pretty common these days. It is always difficult to say whether to stay and take the redundancy or walk earlier for another job so you aren't at the end of a very big line. In the new world order, strategic minerals keeps changing and you don't know how important it is until you need it and the supply is gone.
 
Lets get the terminology right please - The miners are not being sacked - they are being made redundant from their current place of work. You need to be guilty of misconduct etc etc to get the sack.
I do have real sympathy with them & their families - I know from personal experience (more than once) what it feels like to be made redundant. It ain't at all nice. --- BUT they should have seen it coming (the signs have been there for ages) & got their skates on to find alternative work opportunities. As always the brighter ones will have already done this & others will have sat it out to ensure they get the full redundancy payouts.
Those who get up & go looking for opportunities will find them & not surprisingly get support - those who sit back bemoaning their situation are their own worst enemies & shouldn't be pandered to.

Ian

Sorry wrong terminology.

Sacked in dictionary Slang. to dismiss or discharge, as from a job.
Redundant in dictionary. deprived of one's job because it is no longer necessary for efficient operation: he has been made redundant.

So I was using slang, sorry about that.

The REDUNDANT people will appreciate you kind words The thick ones stayed, stop moaning, and you will not be pandered to.

Merry Christmas to you as well
 
Why isnt it viable,how is it cheaper to import the coal?How does that work?
A bit like Lamb. It`s cheaper to buy one that comes from the other side of the world than to buy one that came from a mile away from your house.
 
I am right here about 10 miles away (selby) and it's hit them very hard, and I felt it many years ago with my own place of work being shut down,

Dirty fuel and less tax to be paid is what it boils down to, never the less it's a very sad day not just for the miners but the surrounding small businesses that will close due to the lack of money being spent,

Bob.
 
What always bothers me generally when mines close or redundancies are given, is the workers aren't generally given an option to take a paycut. If the wages are reduced then the operation may still be viable during a commodity downturn. A mate who worked at South Crofty took 3 paycuts in 18 months but the mine did close but that was based on structural change of the tin market when placer tin took off in Malaysia. That is just about gone now and the old tin mines might make a comeback, but at reduced wages.
 
We have huge coal reserves here in the US and our President has vowed to shut all the mines down. On a campaign tour during his election run on his first term he was speaking to a group of coal miners in Pennsylvania and said that if he had his way, they would all be out of a job. We won't even be able to sell you guys coal in a while if this guy has his way. It's awful. Coal fired power plants are closing due to impossible regulations, people are losing their jobs.

Don't even get me started on the oil industry... Again we have more than enough oil to cut ties with the Middle East but no. We aren't allowed to drill and what we get, we can't transport. Maddening.~Muir
 
Follow the money...or ignorant ideology.

Every time you hear some callous "greenie" dimissing the unemployment of thousands of workers in coal mining, because of "clean air", see who is going to get money from the new policy: subsidies to inefficient solar and wind power schemes, and campaign "donations" from overseas suppliers of coal from socialist quasi-dictatorships where the money is skimmed off by those in control.

Between 1970 and 1990, combustion emissions from coal, diesel, gasoline was reduced 97% in the USA, and about 90% in Europe and the UK. Yet we see all these proposals to spend or cost trillions to get the last 3%. The air is clean. But the politicians can get donations (bribes) from Indonesia or Poland or Russia to bring in cheap coal. When a mine with none of the safety standards of those in the UK, USA or Germany collapes in Poland, you won't hear any of the bleeding hearts even take notice.

In the USA, President Clinton took millions in illegal re-election funding from Indonesian and Malaysian coal barons. Obama, as Muir said, just says, "Who cares how clean the burners are. I am going to set the standards so high that they will all shut down." Technologically illiterate ideology, from people who have never had a blister on their hands, much less a callous from hard work.
 
A newscast said they were getting 12 week's pay as a redundancy payment. Is that based on the statutory minimum, or their actual pay? When I was made redundant, we were given enhanced payments to stay until the closing date, after the news was leaked about 18 months early, otherwise, we would have had just 90 days notice and only been paid the statutory minimum.
 
Follow the money...or ignorant ideology.

Every time you hear some callous "greenie" dimissing the unemployment of thousands of workers in coal mining, because of "clean air", see who is going to get money from the new policy: subsidies to inefficient solar and wind power schemes, and campaign "donations" from overseas suppliers of coal from socialist quasi-dictatorships where the money is skimmed off by those in control..

See how green policies are sending businesses broke. This is a very good article on why coal on standby and then charging higher rates when required increases the overall cost of electricity.



The Cost of Wind Power: Killing Jobs and Crushing Families – SA’s Biggest Smelter Under Threat with 750 Jobs at Risk – STOP THESE THINGS
 
A newscast said they were getting 12 week's pay as a redundancy payment. Is that based on the statutory minimum, or their actual pay? When I was made redundant, we were given enhanced payments to stay until the closing date, after the news was leaked about 18 months early, otherwise, we would have had just 90 days notice and only been paid the statutory minimum.
Ito it will be 12weeks at £450
 
Lets get the terminology right please - The miners are not being sacked - they are being made redundant from their current place of work. You need to be guilty of misconduct etc etc to get the sack.
I do have real sympathy with them & their families - I know from personal experience (more than once) what it feels like to be made redundant. It ain't at all nice. --- BUT they should have seen it coming (the signs have been there for ages) & got their skates on to find alternative work opportunities. As always the brighter ones will have already done this & others will have sat it out to ensure they get the full redundancy payouts.
Those who get up & go looking for opportunities will find them & not surprisingly get support - those who sit back bemoaning their situation are their own worst enemies & shouldn't be pandered to.

Ian

Just maybe they're not thick or bemoaning but proud folk whose families had mined coal for generations.

All my family worked down the pits and you mate can poke your comments up your fkin arse
 
A man I know supervises oil drilling rigs in North Dakota. He was ordered to lay off 30 men this past Monday. He almost wept. When he reported that it had been done, he was handed a forty-percent pay cut as his Christmas bonus.
For my part, I haven't had a cost of living increase since Obama got into office but I still consider myself one of the lucky ones. :(~Muir
 
+1 and if the government had subsidised coal with half as much as they have with green energy no pits would have had to close
Just maybe they're not thick or bemoaning but proud folk whose families had mined coal for generations.

All my family worked down the pits and you mate can poke your comments up your fkin arse
 
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