Word: heaths
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...political rhetoric escalated as well. N.U.M. Vice President Michael McGahey, a Scottish union militant and a Communist, told a rally that if troops were used, "I would appeal to them to assist the miners." Heath seized on the statement as evidence that McGahey was trying to bring down his government. The Labor Party leaped into the fray with a statement repudiating "any attempt by Communists or others to use the miners as a political battering ram." Then, to a burst of cheers from Labor benches in Parliament, Opposition Leader Harold Wilson declared that "the extremists in the situation...
...They've taken their pride out of their pockets now. That's why they'll vote for a strike-because they've got to keep the union alive." Strike leaflets phrased the issue thus: "Vote yes for the union. No is a vote for Ted Heath...
...cutting my own throat." But most of Britain's colliers, the ones who dig out the coal day after day for 30 and 40 years, will vote, even reluctantly, with their union. "They thought we'd go back to work like little lads," says Whelan. "But Ted Heath stumbled into something bigger than his dignity...
Since the miners first refused to work overtime last November, the stakes in the government-labor standoff have gradually risen on both sides. For Heath, determined to preserve his anti-inflationary wage guidelines against the miners' demands for what the government claims is a 30% pay boost, it has meant a series of unpopular emergency measures, including a compulsory three-day work week, power cuts, rising unemployment and an economic slowdown. For the miners it has meant an unhappy choice between giving in to the government or digging in for a long, crippling siege that will bring irreparable wage...
...week's end there was one slender hope for an eleventh-hour settlement. Reversing an earlier decision, Heath set a new meeting for this week with the Trades Union Congress, which represents 10 million workers, and the Confederation of British Industry, Britain's largest manufacturers' association. He has asked them to consider a possible compromise based on a "pay relativities" study just issued by the National Pay Board. The study provides for a public inquiry board to recommend wage boosts on the basis of working conditions and the national importance of the industry. Under such criteria...