Give ex-miners strike benefits - call (From South Wales Argus)

Give ex-miners strike benefits - call

6:30pm Wednesday 13th May 2009

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By Alison Sanders »

GWENT ex-miners are backing moves to compensate them for benefits not given to their families during the 1984/5 mining strike.

John Taylor, 62, of Brookside, St Dials, Cwmbran, said he is doing this for his late wife Jackie who died from secondary cancer of the liver in 2005 at the age of 58.

The grandfather of two said: “She kept this family together and put everybody else first."

Miners’ families were supposed to receive £15 a week strike pay during the year-long miners’ strike in 1984.

The Thatcher government said the money was being paid to families by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) but Mr Taylor said no such payments were ever made to miners.

Families therefore missed out on £780 a year.

Mr Taylor wants this money to be paid back to miners and their families with interest.

He said: “This money would have made a hell of a difference in terms of food.”

The father of three worked in the mining industry on and off for 15 years spending time in the pits at Oakdale and Six Bells.

He said his family had stew everyday with vegetables from their allotment and with the cheapest mince beef his wife could buy.

Mr Taylor claimed for deafness, dust on his chest and vibration white finger.

Former miner Brian Prosser, 57, of Beech Grove, Oakdale, was working at the Oakdale pits when the strike was called in 1984.

He said: “If it wasn’t for my family and friends we would have starved.”

He said the £15 a week would have covered the basics and made things easier.

Torfaen MP and Secretary of State for Wales Paul Murphy is pushing for families to be refunded the money and has contacted Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell.

The NUM’s representative for coalworkers in South Wales, Idwal Morgan, said he fully supports Mr Murphy’s efforts and said there should be an apology.

But Mr Morgan added: “The time we wanted the money was when we were struggling to live.”

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