More than 350 men at the most productive of Britain's remaining handful of pits, "Big K" at Kellingley in West Yorkshire, started a 24-hour stoppage in protest against new working hours and conditions.
Men with placards stopped cars ferrying other workers in and out of the complex near Pontefract, whose 500-odd staff produce more coal than Big K did before the strike, when 3,000 were employed. NUM organisers threatened to seek a high court injunction if the mine's operator, UK Coal, imposed extra shifts to take on 240 miners redeployed from the neighbouring Selby coalfield, which closes in July with the loss of 3,000 jobs. The firm wants to extend Kellingley's working hours from a total of 95 hours a week to 145, using the newcomers on extra shifts.
