Events Calendar
Poll / Survey
| Will there be another General Election within a year? | ||
| YesNoDon't Know | 1112955349 | 46%40%14% |
Banners of the NUM
PRESS RELEASE -- STEVE KEMP PUTS CASE FOR COAL TO TUC & CBI - 28 FEBRUARY 2006
TUC/CBI/CARBON /TRUST CONFERENCE, 28 FEBRUARY 2006, CONGRESS HOUSE
Find below the contents of a speech made by Steve Kemp, NUM National Secretary to the TUC/CBI Conference in London today 28 February 2006
Chairman:
In addressing the question of climate change and energy, I have noted the comments of Sir David King and I would like to begin my contribution with one of the more important points he has made several times already:
China.
As you would expect with a union with a 120 year history we try to keep in touch with other miners around the world. China is producing 2.1 billion tonnes of coal a year ? 10 times as much as the UK did at its peak in 1913. This will rise to 2.4 billion tonnes in 4 years, when it comes to the climate, that has some impact!
That is why the European Union is funding a clean coal programme in China and why China intends to build its first zero emissions coal fired plant within 15 years. The Chinese are not sitting around when it comes to clean coal technology. They know they have a problem.
Less well known is the fact that 6,000 miners are being killed every year in Chinese mines. As a union we are looking at how we might help them get that fatal accident rate down.
The safety and health of miners and the environmental degradation in coal mining communities are linked together, always have been.
A safer, more productive industry is a cleaner industry. A cleaner, more mechanised industry provides energy more efficiently and does less environmental damage. It is a package.
The EU and the UK should see the linkage here, too. Help us ? and we say this to the CBI members, too ? to get the accident rate down in China. You can sell safety technology and clean coal technology to China. You know that, because your members are already doing it. But don?t forget the UK.
Let me put a few points forward here for our situation:
First, we need to find a way to incentivise cleaner technologies, lower carbon energy or the deep mines will die and Britain will lose access to its coal resource.
This will need to be sorted out at the EU level, too, because of the rules on state aids.
Second, like the Chinese we should be using supercritical boilers ? they have 80% of the worlds? supercritical boilers; and we don?t have a single one ? even though they are designed here. They can cut CO2 emissions by 20% or more.
Third, we should be investing in clean coal power stations like the IGCC ? Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle - or other processes. These can be built next to the pithead ? like the proposal to revive the mothballed Hatfield colliery, instead of leaving the mine in mothballs.
Where pits are close to pipeline networks, then as the technology is proven, carbon capture and storage techniques can pump CO2 into disused North Sea oil and gas wells.
Fourth, instead of relying on imported fuels, we should be using our own coal. There may be only 6 large deep mines still producing, but they do have extensive reserves and there are millions more tonnes of reserves that could be developed, not just in the three mothballed deep mines. There are untouched reserves as well.
Fifth, there needs to be recognition that the market will not deliver security of energy supply by itself. It has not done so. It does not think strategically.
There needs to be a clearer mechanism in the UK that ensures that we do not so easily abandon our energy resources as we have in the past.
Secure our energy, clean up our act and do it efficiently and work internationally. That?s our message.
Find below the contents of a speech made by Steve Kemp, NUM National Secretary to the TUC/CBI Conference in London today 28 February 2006
Chairman:
In addressing the question of climate change and energy, I have noted the comments of Sir David King and I would like to begin my contribution with one of the more important points he has made several times already:
China.
As you would expect with a union with a 120 year history we try to keep in touch with other miners around the world. China is producing 2.1 billion tonnes of coal a year ? 10 times as much as the UK did at its peak in 1913. This will rise to 2.4 billion tonnes in 4 years, when it comes to the climate, that has some impact!
That is why the European Union is funding a clean coal programme in China and why China intends to build its first zero emissions coal fired plant within 15 years. The Chinese are not sitting around when it comes to clean coal technology. They know they have a problem.
Less well known is the fact that 6,000 miners are being killed every year in Chinese mines. As a union we are looking at how we might help them get that fatal accident rate down.
The safety and health of miners and the environmental degradation in coal mining communities are linked together, always have been.
A safer, more productive industry is a cleaner industry. A cleaner, more mechanised industry provides energy more efficiently and does less environmental damage. It is a package.
The EU and the UK should see the linkage here, too. Help us ? and we say this to the CBI members, too ? to get the accident rate down in China. You can sell safety technology and clean coal technology to China. You know that, because your members are already doing it. But don?t forget the UK.
Let me put a few points forward here for our situation:
First, we need to find a way to incentivise cleaner technologies, lower carbon energy or the deep mines will die and Britain will lose access to its coal resource.
This will need to be sorted out at the EU level, too, because of the rules on state aids.
Second, like the Chinese we should be using supercritical boilers ? they have 80% of the worlds? supercritical boilers; and we don?t have a single one ? even though they are designed here. They can cut CO2 emissions by 20% or more.
Third, we should be investing in clean coal power stations like the IGCC ? Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle - or other processes. These can be built next to the pithead ? like the proposal to revive the mothballed Hatfield colliery, instead of leaving the mine in mothballs.
Where pits are close to pipeline networks, then as the technology is proven, carbon capture and storage techniques can pump CO2 into disused North Sea oil and gas wells.
Fourth, instead of relying on imported fuels, we should be using our own coal. There may be only 6 large deep mines still producing, but they do have extensive reserves and there are millions more tonnes of reserves that could be developed, not just in the three mothballed deep mines. There are untouched reserves as well.
Fifth, there needs to be recognition that the market will not deliver security of energy supply by itself. It has not done so. It does not think strategically.
There needs to be a clearer mechanism in the UK that ensures that we do not so easily abandon our energy resources as we have in the past.
Secure our energy, clean up our act and do it efficiently and work internationally. That?s our message.
AIMS AND AMBITIONS OF THE NOTTINGHAM EX & RETIRED MINERS' ASSOCIATION
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE NUM EX & RETIRED MINERS' ASSOCIATION.
THE ASSOCIATION FOR EX & RETIRED MINEWORKERS OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS WAS LAUNCHED ON SATURDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2005.
THE ASSOCIATION IS AFFILIATED TO THE NUM NOTTINGHAMSHIRE AREA
THE AIMS AND AMBITIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION IS TO PROVIDE FACILTIES
? TO MEMBERS FOR SOCIAL EVENTS
? TO PROVIDE A SERVICE TO MINEWORKERS IN ISOLATED MINING COMMUNITIES
? TO ARRANGE MEETINGS OF THE ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP TO HEAR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE ON SOCIAL INSURANCE, PENSIONS ETC
? TO PROVIDE SPEAKERS EVENINGS
? TO PRODUCE NEWS LETTERS ON A REGULAR BASIS ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EVENTS
? TO GIVE UP-DATES ON THE COAL MINING INDUSTRY
? TO CAMPAIGN FOR IMPROVED BENEFITS
? TO MAINTAIN REPRESENTATION OF EX & RETIRED NUM MEMBERS.
A CONTRIBUTION LEVY OF ?0.50p PER WEEK HAS BEEN AGREED BY THE INAUGURAL COMMITTEE.
MEMBERSHIP FORMS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE NUM OFFICE, 42 ST JOHN ST, MANSFIELD, NOTTS. NG18 1QJ
Tel No 01623 621611
THE ASSOCIATION FOR EX & RETIRED MINEWORKERS OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS WAS LAUNCHED ON SATURDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2005.
THE ASSOCIATION IS AFFILIATED TO THE NUM NOTTINGHAMSHIRE AREA
THE AIMS AND AMBITIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION IS TO PROVIDE FACILTIES
? TO MEMBERS FOR SOCIAL EVENTS
? TO PROVIDE A SERVICE TO MINEWORKERS IN ISOLATED MINING COMMUNITIES
? TO ARRANGE MEETINGS OF THE ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP TO HEAR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE ON SOCIAL INSURANCE, PENSIONS ETC
? TO PROVIDE SPEAKERS EVENINGS
? TO PRODUCE NEWS LETTERS ON A REGULAR BASIS ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EVENTS
? TO GIVE UP-DATES ON THE COAL MINING INDUSTRY
? TO CAMPAIGN FOR IMPROVED BENEFITS
? TO MAINTAIN REPRESENTATION OF EX & RETIRED NUM MEMBERS.
A CONTRIBUTION LEVY OF ?0.50p PER WEEK HAS BEEN AGREED BY THE INAUGURAL COMMITTEE.
MEMBERSHIP FORMS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE NUM OFFICE, 42 ST JOHN ST, MANSFIELD, NOTTS. NG18 1QJ
Tel No 01623 621611
MAY DAY MARCH FOR TRADE UNION RIGHTS - 26 january 2006
Meeting today, the TUC Executive has called for trade unionists to march for trade union rights and in support of a Trade Union Freedom Bill on May Day. The TUC will join with the traditional London May Day march to provide a national focus on May 1st, which this year is also the May Day Bank Holiday. Local May Day events around the country will also give trade unionists the opportunity to back the TUC's campaign.
More information about the march and rally will be available at www.tuc.org.uk/mayday in the run up to the countrywide events. The London march will assemble at Clerkenwell Green and march to Trafalgar Square for a rally.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'People at work in the UK enjoy fewer rights than most people in the rest of Europe.
'Union campaigns have won advances such as the minimum wage, better time off and union recognition laws, but there is still a long way to go to win decent minimum rights for all, as we saw at Gate Gourmet.
'This is why today's TUC Executive called on Britain's trade unionists to march for modern rights for modern workplaces and a Trade Union Freedom Bill on May Day.'
More information about the march and rally will be available at www.tuc.org.uk/mayday in the run up to the countrywide events. The London march will assemble at Clerkenwell Green and march to Trafalgar Square for a rally.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'People at work in the UK enjoy fewer rights than most people in the rest of Europe.
'Union campaigns have won advances such as the minimum wage, better time off and union recognition laws, but there is still a long way to go to win decent minimum rights for all, as we saw at Gate Gourmet.
'This is why today's TUC Executive called on Britain's trade unionists to march for modern rights for modern workplaces and a Trade Union Freedom Bill on May Day.'
TUC CALLS FOR INTEREST RATE CUT - 10 JANUARY 2006
Without a cut in interest rates, the UK economy faces real difficulties in the year ahead with the threat of lower growth, higher unemployment and real problems for the manufacturing sector which could face up to 80,000 redundancies, the TUC says in a new report Cut or Bust - Why the Bank must cut interest rates in 2006 published today (Tuesday).
The arguments against an interest rate cut do not stack up when examined in depth, says the TUC, so the Bank of England should act early in 2006 to cut rates, which should ensure that this year is a better one than 2005 with economic growth at the top end of Treasury forecasts.
Interest rate hawks oppose cuts, says the TUC, because they believe that the economy is currently running at full capacity and that we face inflationary threats, including higher oil prices and rising wages.
But the TUC's detailed analysis set out in Cut or Bust - Why the Bank must cut interest rates in 2006 shows that neither are a reason not to cut interest rates.
Far from running at full capacity, official figures published in the Pre-Budget Report show that there is a higher than expected gap between what the economy could produce and what it actually produces of 1.75% of GDP.
Energy prices have undoubtedly increased but they have not fed through to increased prices across the economy with the consumer inflation rate, excluding energy prices, actually falling in recent months.
Nor have higher energy prices caused an increase in wages. Indeed earnings growth slowed in 2005, and, at 3.9 per cent, has consistently been below the level (4.5 per cent) that most economists consider inflationary.
Warning signs that the economy could hit the rocks without a cut in interest rates include a small rise in the unemployment rate in the last year. And although unemployment is relatively low, the TUC estimates that there could be up to 80,000 job losses in manufacturing in 2006.
Nor should the Bank worry that low unemployment carries an inflationary risk as there is a reserve of people who want to work but do not show up in unemployment figures. Cut or Bust - Why the Bank must cut interest rates in 2006 shows that 11 per cent of the working age population without jobs want to work.
'The UK economy has weathered global economic squalls comparatively well, and is on track to do better in the year ahead,' said TUC chief economist Ian Brinkley, 'but this could go wrong if the Bank fails to cut interest rates. The balance of risk is now of downturn, not inflation. The Bank must act sooner rather than later.'
The arguments against an interest rate cut do not stack up when examined in depth, says the TUC, so the Bank of England should act early in 2006 to cut rates, which should ensure that this year is a better one than 2005 with economic growth at the top end of Treasury forecasts.
Interest rate hawks oppose cuts, says the TUC, because they believe that the economy is currently running at full capacity and that we face inflationary threats, including higher oil prices and rising wages.
But the TUC's detailed analysis set out in Cut or Bust - Why the Bank must cut interest rates in 2006 shows that neither are a reason not to cut interest rates.
Far from running at full capacity, official figures published in the Pre-Budget Report show that there is a higher than expected gap between what the economy could produce and what it actually produces of 1.75% of GDP.
Energy prices have undoubtedly increased but they have not fed through to increased prices across the economy with the consumer inflation rate, excluding energy prices, actually falling in recent months.
Nor have higher energy prices caused an increase in wages. Indeed earnings growth slowed in 2005, and, at 3.9 per cent, has consistently been below the level (4.5 per cent) that most economists consider inflationary.
Warning signs that the economy could hit the rocks without a cut in interest rates include a small rise in the unemployment rate in the last year. And although unemployment is relatively low, the TUC estimates that there could be up to 80,000 job losses in manufacturing in 2006.
Nor should the Bank worry that low unemployment carries an inflationary risk as there is a reserve of people who want to work but do not show up in unemployment figures. Cut or Bust - Why the Bank must cut interest rates in 2006 shows that 11 per cent of the working age population without jobs want to work.
'The UK economy has weathered global economic squalls comparatively well, and is on track to do better in the year ahead,' said TUC chief economist Ian Brinkley, 'but this could go wrong if the Bank fails to cut interest rates. The balance of risk is now of downturn, not inflation. The Bank must act sooner rather than later.'
NUM PRESS RELEASE ON USA MINE DISASTER - 06 JANUARY 2006
The National Union of Mineworkers today (Friday 6 January 2006) expressed its deep concern that safety standards in UK coalmines could be at risk.
The tragedy that has struck the Sago mine in the USA causes great concern following the revelation that the Sago mine, which is run by Anker West Virginia Mining Co and owned by International Coal Group Inc, has as its chairman New York financier Wilbur Ross.
Wilbur Ross is Chairman and Chief Executive of WL Ross & Co LLC, a merchant banking firm that in August 2005 announced that private equity funds managed by the firm, had notified UK Coal PLC that they had acquired 5,555.238 shares, or 3.74% of UK Coal?s 148,508,167 outstanding shares of the investment in UK Coal. Wilbur L Ross Jr said, ?Gerry Spindler and his team have made considerable progress in dealing with the company?s problems and hopefully this trend will continue.? Garrold (Gerry) Spindler is the Chief Executive of UK Coal PLC and is also an American who was previously President of Cyprus Amax Coal Company, the second largest coal business in America.
Ian Lavery NUM National Chairman said, ?We will oppose any measures that in our view threaten to reduce safety and health standards in Britain?s coal mines and we have already expressed grave concern at the introduction of longer shift patterns which we believe expose miners to increased stress and fatigue as well as increased exposure to health risks.
?Britain?s mining industry has for many years been recognised as the safest in the world and this is in no small part due to the vigilance of the NUM and its safety inspectors. The fact that the coalmine in Virginia was non-unionised is not without significance.?
?We are aware that since October of last year the US Mine Safety and Health Administration issued as many as fifty citations to the Sago mine including citations for accumulation of combustible materials such as coal dust and loose coal emphasising that action must be taken before tragedy happens.
?As far as the NUM is concerned the safety of our miners in the UK is paramount and will always be placed ahead of profit. The NUM will continue to work closely with Her Majesty?s Inspectorate (HMI) and UK Coal to ensure that the highest safety standards are maintained.?
NUM Press Release
NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS
Miners? Offices, Huddersfield Road, Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2LS
Telephone: 01226-215555/Fax: 01226-215561
The tragedy that has struck the Sago mine in the USA causes great concern following the revelation that the Sago mine, which is run by Anker West Virginia Mining Co and owned by International Coal Group Inc, has as its chairman New York financier Wilbur Ross.
Wilbur Ross is Chairman and Chief Executive of WL Ross & Co LLC, a merchant banking firm that in August 2005 announced that private equity funds managed by the firm, had notified UK Coal PLC that they had acquired 5,555.238 shares, or 3.74% of UK Coal?s 148,508,167 outstanding shares of the investment in UK Coal. Wilbur L Ross Jr said, ?Gerry Spindler and his team have made considerable progress in dealing with the company?s problems and hopefully this trend will continue.? Garrold (Gerry) Spindler is the Chief Executive of UK Coal PLC and is also an American who was previously President of Cyprus Amax Coal Company, the second largest coal business in America.
Ian Lavery NUM National Chairman said, ?We will oppose any measures that in our view threaten to reduce safety and health standards in Britain?s coal mines and we have already expressed grave concern at the introduction of longer shift patterns which we believe expose miners to increased stress and fatigue as well as increased exposure to health risks.
?Britain?s mining industry has for many years been recognised as the safest in the world and this is in no small part due to the vigilance of the NUM and its safety inspectors. The fact that the coalmine in Virginia was non-unionised is not without significance.?
?We are aware that since October of last year the US Mine Safety and Health Administration issued as many as fifty citations to the Sago mine including citations for accumulation of combustible materials such as coal dust and loose coal emphasising that action must be taken before tragedy happens.
?As far as the NUM is concerned the safety of our miners in the UK is paramount and will always be placed ahead of profit. The NUM will continue to work closely with Her Majesty?s Inspectorate (HMI) and UK Coal to ensure that the highest safety standards are maintained.?
NUM Press Release
NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS
Miners? Offices, Huddersfield Road, Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2LS
Telephone: 01226-215555/Fax: 01226-215561
Industrial Action
The National Union of Mineworkers expresses its support for fellow trade unionists in the Public Sector who today are having to resort to withdrawing their labour (a fundamental right of any worker) and take strike action against these unfair cuts to their pensions and terms and conditions.
T
[ MORE ]
[ MORE ]
Funeral of Gerry Gibson
It is with deep regret that the NUM (Yorkshire Area) announce the Funeral Service details for Gerry Gibson who tragically lost his life at Kellingley Colliery on Tuesday 27th September 2011.The Service in dedication to Gerry a much respected member,work mate & fellow miner will be held in
[ MORE ]
[ MORE ]
Statement from Gerry's Family
We are all truly devastated by Gerry's sudden and tragic death.
We would like to pay tribute to everyone involved in attempts to rescue Gerry - all work colleagues; Kellingley rescue team; the air ambulance team and all other medics who were on site. Their tireless efforts were not i
[ MORE ]
[ MORE ]
Fatality at Kellingley Colliery
it is with deep regret that the national union of mineworkers has to confirm that as a result of a tragic accident at kellingley colliery one of our members has lost his life.
the whole workforce at the colliery are devastated at the loss of a friend and colleague as a result of a roof fall on 502s
[ MORE ]
[ MORE ]