Mick Griffiths, Wakefield and Pontefract Socialist Party
400 people demonstrated in support of the National Mining Museum dispute for fair pay in Wakefield on 6 December, despite bad weather conditions.
After five months of all-out action, Unison members have vowed to continue for however long it takes to win.
The rally heard solidarity greetings from the Birmingham bin workers strike and expressed anger at the Labour government and councils sacking and rehiring workers on less pay.
This dispute has become much more than a struggle over pay. It is now widely regarded as a battle to defend the right to collective bargaining and the very existence of basic trade unionism against management’s attempts to crush union resistance.
Our Socialist Party stall was inundated with members of the public supporting not only the mining museum strikers’ petition, but also expressing concerns about some of the many key issues faced by the working class, such as nationalisation of energy companies, further privatisation of the NHS, digital ID cards imposition, etc, etc!
