mining - num wins 200 jobs
WORKERS, SEPT 2005 ISSUE
Two hundred new mining jobs are set to be created at the Kellingley pit in West Yorkshire. This decision comes after redundancies in the spring and dire management warnings over the future of the pit due to geological problems.
Now, after closer working between the NUM and the management, a five-year survival plan for the pit has been agreed, productivity has increased, planned compulsory redundancies abandoned and new miners, including apprentices and trainees, are to be employed. Management blunders have been openly criticised by the Chief Executive as "wrong-minded" and the "unforeseen geological faults" seem to have disappeared. So who really manages the pit and who could be got rid of overnight? The miners or the privateers?
• UK Coal has now twice denied it is holding takeover discussions with Alchemy Partners. Is the bride playing hard to get? Alchemy Partners is an investment fund holder group, specialising in property management and real estate development, not coalmining. Apparently UK Coal and Alchemy Partners could not agree a basis for talks over the continuation of coalmining, the miners' pension fund and the property portfolio, which is where Alchemy's real interest lies.
The portfolio consists of the vast area of land UK Coal inherited from the privatisation of British Coal. Originally valued at £50 million, it was worth £174 million by 2002 — turning base metal into gold?