Section 3 – After the strikes
Here, we have a redundancy letter which was sent by the National Coal Board to a miner offering voluntary redundancy following the end of the strike. Redundancy is when a person loses their job because there is no more work available for that job in which they are employed.
The closure of mines resulted in many redundancies and job losses, both in the pits and in related industries. Mining Supplies Ltd based in Doncaster and Gullick Dobson in Wigan are examples of companies which supplied mining machinery and associated equipment.
Redundancy payments offered to miners were substantial amounts of money which were larger sums than many of them had ever dealt with during their working lives. Investment advice was made available by the Coal Board but this was not always financially sound and, in some cases, miners lost money as a consequence.