Events Calendar
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Banners of the NUM
TUC ON PENSIONS SCHEME CLOSURES - 06 JANUARY 2006
Commenting on the recent closure of a number of final salary pensions schemes, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber today (Thursday) said:
"The death of salary related pensions is much exaggerated, and unions have a proud record in defending and extending pension rights. We stand ready to resist pension cuts in companies that can afford to fund deficits, have taken extended contributions holidays or expect everyone other than directors to tighten their belts. A pension cut is a pay cut, and our members expect us to defend their pay.
"Unions however recognise that in some organisations pensions do have to change, and have negotiated sensible changes that have preserved and extended good schemes while reducing their costs to employers - often despite original employer plans to cut back more severely. Rentokil, where staff do not have union protection, is still the exception in completely closing their scheme.
"Over the coming year, we expect to see even more attention focused on scheme funding as trustees try to reach reasonable agreements with employers on contribution levels. There is evidence that some employers still put greater emphasis on paying dividends to shareholders - often other companies' pension schemes - rather than funding their own employees' pension scheme."
"The death of salary related pensions is much exaggerated, and unions have a proud record in defending and extending pension rights. We stand ready to resist pension cuts in companies that can afford to fund deficits, have taken extended contributions holidays or expect everyone other than directors to tighten their belts. A pension cut is a pay cut, and our members expect us to defend their pay.
"Unions however recognise that in some organisations pensions do have to change, and have negotiated sensible changes that have preserved and extended good schemes while reducing their costs to employers - often despite original employer plans to cut back more severely. Rentokil, where staff do not have union protection, is still the exception in completely closing their scheme.
"Over the coming year, we expect to see even more attention focused on scheme funding as trustees try to reach reasonable agreements with employers on contribution levels. There is evidence that some employers still put greater emphasis on paying dividends to shareholders - often other companies' pension schemes - rather than funding their own employees' pension scheme."
UKRAINE GAS CRISIS -NUM PRESS RELEASE 03 JANAURY 2006
The gas crisis caused by the dispute between Russia and the Ukraine is bound to cause a major re-think in respect of this country?s future energy policy.
Over the past 15 years Britain has relied mainly on gas to fuel our power stations and generate our electricity.
The folly of the ?dash for gas? led to the closure of our coal mines as we squandered two of our national assets at the same time, gas by burning it in vast quantities in gas fired power stations when we could have used coal, saving our gas for domestic use, and coal itself by sterilising it underground in closed coalmines.
The NUM has continuously warned that by 2020 our gas reserves would be depleted and that we would be dependent on foreign imports for our energy requirements and wide open to supply disruption.
In a newspaper article in March of last year I warned that:
?By 2020 Britain will be 90 per cent dependent on gas for its energy needs, 70 per cent of which will have to be imported from politically unstable countries around the world such as Russia, Iran, Iraq and Algeria and transported through pipe lines wide open to terrorist attack.?
Less than one year after making that statement Russia has demonstrated the point in a far more telling way as supplies to the Ukraine were cut off as a result of a demanded price increase of more than 456 per cent.
Supplies to Hungary were reduced by 33 per cent and to France by 30 per cent. The implications for Britain are stark. We face an energy famine of monumental proportions unless we take action now to use the vast coal reserves with which this nation has been blessed.
Government complacency over the past 20 years and a political vindictiveness towards coal will inevitably cost the nation dear. One way or the other we are going to have to pay heavily for mistakes that have been made.
Gas prices are set to rocket and the gas and electricity consumer will have to pick up the tab. Any move towards nuclear power will prove extremely expensive and a long time in coming and will not keep gas cookers and gas central systems ticking, renewables are in no position whatsoever to take up the slack and accessing our coal reserves and re-training miners will come at a price and the longer we dally the more it will cost.
In a widely distributed publication in June 2004, in a response to a Government Energy White Paper the NUM warned:
?If electricity generation as well as domestic fuel supply is allowed to rely to heavily on gas, most of that gas will have to be imported. By the year 2020 import dependency will have risen to around 90%. Gas is particularly susceptible to disruption and is not easily stored. The possible physical disruption to supply is an issue, but there is a strong likelihood of gas price rises regardless of any political upheavals in countries of origin or transit.?
The Institute of Chemical Engineers pointed out in its response to the same Government White Paper consultation:
?The Energy Review was complacent about future gas supplies. It looked at the UK in isolation and overlooked the impact on process of Europe?s parallel growth in gas demand. Prices will inevitably rise because of the growing European dependence on gas supplies imported from far-flung countries. Major new infrastructure will be required, but even when this is installed, the UK will be vulnerable on the end of a complex international gas grid.?
Britain now has only 8 collieries left and one of those Rossington in Yorkshire is in the process of being closed while Harworth in Nottinghamshire has been ?mothballed? which effectively means closed because the miners are being dispersed or made redundant.
In the past 18 months Hatfield in Yorkshire has been closed regardless of its vast coal reserves, the Selby coalfield, once the jewel in the crown of our coal industry has been closed sterilising a hundred years of coal and Ellington in the North East was closed, using a minor water problem as the pretext, leaving vast untapped reserves.
The coal industry is in the hands of a private company - UK Coal - which openly admits that it is more interested in the property value than in mining coal and consequently is closing pits to cash in on the sale of the property.
This is no way to secure Britain?s long-term energy needs. We must develop once again our coal industry using the latest clean coal technologies now being developed in America, India, Australia and China.
Coal gasification can provide the answer to our impending gas crisis and relieve us of import dependency.
We must stop squandering our coal, our gas and our future energy security.
Steve Kemp
NUM National Secretary
3 January 2006
Contact:
Steve Kemp 01226 215555 ext 555
Or
Ken Capstick NUM Press Officer 01226 215555 ext 216
Over the past 15 years Britain has relied mainly on gas to fuel our power stations and generate our electricity.
The folly of the ?dash for gas? led to the closure of our coal mines as we squandered two of our national assets at the same time, gas by burning it in vast quantities in gas fired power stations when we could have used coal, saving our gas for domestic use, and coal itself by sterilising it underground in closed coalmines.
The NUM has continuously warned that by 2020 our gas reserves would be depleted and that we would be dependent on foreign imports for our energy requirements and wide open to supply disruption.
In a newspaper article in March of last year I warned that:
?By 2020 Britain will be 90 per cent dependent on gas for its energy needs, 70 per cent of which will have to be imported from politically unstable countries around the world such as Russia, Iran, Iraq and Algeria and transported through pipe lines wide open to terrorist attack.?
Less than one year after making that statement Russia has demonstrated the point in a far more telling way as supplies to the Ukraine were cut off as a result of a demanded price increase of more than 456 per cent.
Supplies to Hungary were reduced by 33 per cent and to France by 30 per cent. The implications for Britain are stark. We face an energy famine of monumental proportions unless we take action now to use the vast coal reserves with which this nation has been blessed.
Government complacency over the past 20 years and a political vindictiveness towards coal will inevitably cost the nation dear. One way or the other we are going to have to pay heavily for mistakes that have been made.
Gas prices are set to rocket and the gas and electricity consumer will have to pick up the tab. Any move towards nuclear power will prove extremely expensive and a long time in coming and will not keep gas cookers and gas central systems ticking, renewables are in no position whatsoever to take up the slack and accessing our coal reserves and re-training miners will come at a price and the longer we dally the more it will cost.
In a widely distributed publication in June 2004, in a response to a Government Energy White Paper the NUM warned:
?If electricity generation as well as domestic fuel supply is allowed to rely to heavily on gas, most of that gas will have to be imported. By the year 2020 import dependency will have risen to around 90%. Gas is particularly susceptible to disruption and is not easily stored. The possible physical disruption to supply is an issue, but there is a strong likelihood of gas price rises regardless of any political upheavals in countries of origin or transit.?
The Institute of Chemical Engineers pointed out in its response to the same Government White Paper consultation:
?The Energy Review was complacent about future gas supplies. It looked at the UK in isolation and overlooked the impact on process of Europe?s parallel growth in gas demand. Prices will inevitably rise because of the growing European dependence on gas supplies imported from far-flung countries. Major new infrastructure will be required, but even when this is installed, the UK will be vulnerable on the end of a complex international gas grid.?
Britain now has only 8 collieries left and one of those Rossington in Yorkshire is in the process of being closed while Harworth in Nottinghamshire has been ?mothballed? which effectively means closed because the miners are being dispersed or made redundant.
In the past 18 months Hatfield in Yorkshire has been closed regardless of its vast coal reserves, the Selby coalfield, once the jewel in the crown of our coal industry has been closed sterilising a hundred years of coal and Ellington in the North East was closed, using a minor water problem as the pretext, leaving vast untapped reserves.
The coal industry is in the hands of a private company - UK Coal - which openly admits that it is more interested in the property value than in mining coal and consequently is closing pits to cash in on the sale of the property.
This is no way to secure Britain?s long-term energy needs. We must develop once again our coal industry using the latest clean coal technologies now being developed in America, India, Australia and China.
Coal gasification can provide the answer to our impending gas crisis and relieve us of import dependency.
We must stop squandering our coal, our gas and our future energy security.
Steve Kemp
NUM National Secretary
3 January 2006
Contact:
Steve Kemp 01226 215555 ext 555
Or
Ken Capstick NUM Press Officer 01226 215555 ext 216
ROSSINGTON LATEST - NUM ASK MINISTER TO INTERVENE - 21 DECEMBER 2005
The National Union of Mineworkers (Yorkshire Area) has written to Alan Johnson, Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, asking him to intervene and to take action against UK Coal for submitting misleading information and failing to properly notify the Department of their plans and reasons for making NUM members redundant at Rossington Colliery in Yorkshire.
The NUM (Yorkshire Area) believes that the reason given by the company in a formal document to the Government - commonly known as an HR1 - is misleading because it states that the reason given for closing Rossington is due to "adverse geological conditions".
The NUM, at a recent meeting with UK Coal, posed questions to the company on these issues to which the reply from UK Coal's Chief Executive Garold Spindler to the HR1 completed by UK Coal was that it was his belief that the HR1 was incomplete and that the reasons for the closure of Rossington was mainly due to financial problems.
Steve Kemp, NUM National and Yorkshire Area Secretary, stated "this is a serious breach of employment law in our opinion and we are asking the Secretary of State to intervene immediately to address this appalling situation brought about by a company who seems hell-bent on closing collieries like Rossington without regard to any legal procedure whatsoever".
NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS
Miners? Offices, Huddersfield Road, Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2LS
Telephone: 01226-215555/Fax: 01226-215561
All enquiries 01226 215555 ext 555
The NUM (Yorkshire Area) believes that the reason given by the company in a formal document to the Government - commonly known as an HR1 - is misleading because it states that the reason given for closing Rossington is due to "adverse geological conditions".
The NUM, at a recent meeting with UK Coal, posed questions to the company on these issues to which the reply from UK Coal's Chief Executive Garold Spindler to the HR1 completed by UK Coal was that it was his belief that the HR1 was incomplete and that the reasons for the closure of Rossington was mainly due to financial problems.
Steve Kemp, NUM National and Yorkshire Area Secretary, stated "this is a serious breach of employment law in our opinion and we are asking the Secretary of State to intervene immediately to address this appalling situation brought about by a company who seems hell-bent on closing collieries like Rossington without regard to any legal procedure whatsoever".
NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS
Miners? Offices, Huddersfield Road, Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2LS
Telephone: 01226-215555/Fax: 01226-215561
All enquiries 01226 215555 ext 555
AMICUS EXPRESSES FEAR OVER PERSONAL INJURY COMPENSATION - 21 DECEMBER 2005
Amicus say they fear that a review by MPs of personal injury settlements may result in fewer workers getting legal support and receiving less damages than they are currently entitled to.
The union says that, if adopted, recommendations by the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee will result in legal costs not being met, even in successful cases, affecting victim's abilities to pursue personal injury cases. Currently any personal injury case that awards over ?1,000 can recover legal costs from a defendant who is found liable.
Amicus claim that the proposal to raise the legal limit to ?2,500 will mean than approximately half of all injured people will lose the right to have their legal costs covered. The union says the Committee's proposal reflects its' failure to take evidence from the TUC or the trade unions and opening itself up to powerful insurance industry lobby interests.
The union says the Committee's report supports a worrying trend. A recent Home Office review proposes to remove the right to damages for injuries valued at up to ?3,000 and any losses of earnings (which could amount to tens of thousands of pounds) from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. Amicus also fears that workplace victims of violence could be removed from the scheme, exempting vulnerable professionals such as those the health sector.
Amicus' Director of Legal Services, Georgina Hirsch, said: "The government has said it wants better compensation for the victims of criminal acts, such as the 7th July bombings, but is cynically preventing others with serious injuries, including broken bones and scarring from claiming compensation.
"The legal costs involved in an average small claims personal injury claim amount to approximately nine months pay for someone earning the minimum wage so there is a huge amount at stake here, especially the poorest people in society. These proposals would be a Charter for bad employers and careless landlords to disregard health and safety.
"It is vital that the principle remains that those who take a personal injury case and win should be entitled to have their legal expenses paid.
We need a system that penalises negligent employers, not those pursuing legitimate claims."
Amicus says it will campaign for the principle for those who take a legal case and win to be entitled to their legal expenses to remain. It also wants those currently entitled to damages not to be excluded from the system of tariffs under the Criminal Injuries Scheme.
Amicus say an insurance premium system that assessed employer's safety standards would be a more effective way of improving workplace safety and reducing the number of accidents and personal injury claims.
Note to editors
In 2004 - 2005, 150,559 non-fatal injuries were reported at work.
The union says that, if adopted, recommendations by the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee will result in legal costs not being met, even in successful cases, affecting victim's abilities to pursue personal injury cases. Currently any personal injury case that awards over ?1,000 can recover legal costs from a defendant who is found liable.
Amicus claim that the proposal to raise the legal limit to ?2,500 will mean than approximately half of all injured people will lose the right to have their legal costs covered. The union says the Committee's proposal reflects its' failure to take evidence from the TUC or the trade unions and opening itself up to powerful insurance industry lobby interests.
The union says the Committee's report supports a worrying trend. A recent Home Office review proposes to remove the right to damages for injuries valued at up to ?3,000 and any losses of earnings (which could amount to tens of thousands of pounds) from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. Amicus also fears that workplace victims of violence could be removed from the scheme, exempting vulnerable professionals such as those the health sector.
Amicus' Director of Legal Services, Georgina Hirsch, said: "The government has said it wants better compensation for the victims of criminal acts, such as the 7th July bombings, but is cynically preventing others with serious injuries, including broken bones and scarring from claiming compensation.
"The legal costs involved in an average small claims personal injury claim amount to approximately nine months pay for someone earning the minimum wage so there is a huge amount at stake here, especially the poorest people in society. These proposals would be a Charter for bad employers and careless landlords to disregard health and safety.
"It is vital that the principle remains that those who take a personal injury case and win should be entitled to have their legal expenses paid.
We need a system that penalises negligent employers, not those pursuing legitimate claims."
Amicus says it will campaign for the principle for those who take a legal case and win to be entitled to their legal expenses to remain. It also wants those currently entitled to damages not to be excluded from the system of tariffs under the Criminal Injuries Scheme.
Amicus say an insurance premium system that assessed employer's safety standards would be a more effective way of improving workplace safety and reducing the number of accidents and personal injury claims.
Note to editors
In 2004 - 2005, 150,559 non-fatal injuries were reported at work.
TUC COMMENT AS INTEREST RATES ARE HELD AT 4.5% - 10 DECEMBER 2005
Commenting on the Bank of England's decision to hold interest rates at 4.5%, TUC Chief Economist Ian Brinkley said:
"Today's news was expected. A cut in rates would have provided a welcome Christmas present for industry and the high street, as manufacturing output falls and retailers struggle. We hope to see a cut early in the new year."
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Manufacturing Output fell by 0.7 per cent in October compared with the previous month, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday.
The CBI's quarterly Distributive Trades Survey, published last Thursday, showed sales heavily down on a year ago. Sales reported in Novemberand expected in December are the worst recorded in the 22-year history of the survey.
- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk
"Today's news was expected. A cut in rates would have provided a welcome Christmas present for industry and the high street, as manufacturing output falls and retailers struggle. We hope to see a cut early in the new year."
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Manufacturing Output fell by 0.7 per cent in October compared with the previous month, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday.
The CBI's quarterly Distributive Trades Survey, published last Thursday, showed sales heavily down on a year ago. Sales reported in Novemberand expected in December are the worst recorded in the 22-year history of the survey.
- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk
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
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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
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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
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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
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