One of the most significant chapters in Britain╒s trade union history was closed last night when the miners reluctantly agreed to call off their strike in a mood of bitterness and tears, almost a year after it had begun.
A delegate conference of the National Union of Mineworkers at TUC headquarters in London decided by 98 votes to 91 to abandon the strike without an agreement with the National Coal Board and call for an organised return to work tomorrow.
To the end, Mr Arthur Scargill, the NUM president, spat defiance at the NCB, the Government, the TUC and the media, maintaining that while the strike was at an end, the struggle would go on.
The tactics of the union will be to fight pit closures at local level and to cause as much inconvenience as possible to the NCB in the process. By returning to work without an agreement, the union has still not resolved its problems with the NCB over pay.
Its 16-month overtime ban in response to the board╒s 5.2 per cent pay offer will be maintained, and it is refusing to participate in the new revised colliery review procedure which has been agreed between the NCB and Nacods, the pit supervisors╒ union.
The board responded with a tough approach of no compromise, from its chief spokesman, Mr Michael Eaton. Until the miners call off their overtime ban, the board will not assume that normality has returned to the pits, and no pay increase will be forthcoming.
The NCB, is not interested in approaching Mr Scargill and his national officers ╤ Mr Peter Heathfield, the general secretary, and Mr Mick McGahey, the vice-president ╤ in a conciliatory gesture.
╥I think the initiative lies with them, even though it may not be the most popular thing to say,╙ Mr Eaton said.
The coal board chairman, Mr Ian MacGregor said the priority was to get back to normal and safe working quickly. ╥Every day many more miners have been returning to work, demonstrating to their leaders that they want the dispute brought to an end. That is also a clear signal to them to call off the overtime ban that the union introduced in November 1983,╙ he said.
╥We would then be able to get down to the crucial task of ensuring the future success of the industry. We need to restore coal production to former levels, to regain coal markets we have lost and to plan ahead to ensure that Britain has the high volume, low cost coal industry which alone will guarantee a secure future.╙ After bowing to the growing divisions within the union over the conduct of the dispute, Mr Scargill condemned vast sections of the Labour movement and his hosts at Congress House for not rising to the occasion when it mattered by supporting the miners.
As delegates dispersed in the pouring rain outside TUC headquarters, where several hundred demonstrators waited to jeer and to chant ╥Scab╙, Mr Scargill told a press conference that he did not regard the vote as a defeat for himself.
He thanked the miners for their support and described it as a ╥tremendous achievement. Men and women have fought a fight that has not been seen anywhere in the world╙
He listed the strike╒s achievements as withdrawal of the threat to close five pits, by putting them into the new colliery review procedure, the NCB╒s failure to implement its 1984/85 closure programme, and the mobilisation of the NUM.
Mr Scargill went on: ╥The workers in this struggle have demonstrated to the working class that if they make a stand they can prevent attempts to butcher their industry.╙
