MovieChat Forums > Billy Elliot (2000) Discussion > Can somebody explain me some things abou...

Can somebody explain me some things about the miners?

posted 9 years ago by nnenok
2 replies | jump to latest

I pretty oblivious to the Thatcher period of the British history and I had quite a lot of problems understanding what was happening to miners in the movie, so I was hoping somebody could give me some background?

So, what I know is basically what Mrs. Wilkinson's husband said - Thatcher decided to close a lot of mining pits because they weren't profitable, making many miners lose their job. The things I did not understand were the following:
1) What were the protest of miners about and who were they aiming at? I'm referring to the protests Billy's dad and brother went to where they screamed at the police and the buses. What were they aiming to achieve with those?
2) Who (and what) were the "scabs"? Tony calls his ex-best friend in the store one because he goes to the bus.
3) What happened to the miners who went on the bus? Where did they go/what did they do and why was is perceived as betrayal by the other (protesting) miners?
4) Finally, why was going back to the pit a bad thing? Weren't they protesting to keep them open?

I tried to get some more understanding on Wikipedia, but it just made me more confused, hopefully somebody can break it down for me? Thanks!

[–] eb999 9 years ago

Hi I'm not British so I can't answer your questions in detail but I can clarify a little bit.

First a strike is always done by workers who want to improve their working conditions: salary, hours, benefits, safety etc. They stop working as a group in the hope that the employer will cave into their demands. The movie doesn't tell us specifically what the miners were striking about but you can guess. Also this takes place when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and she was a tough conservative politician who I believe wanted to destroy the unions.

Scabs - This is a term used for the miners who choose not to strike or for new workers brought in from outside. Remember that the only power a strike has is in the workers stopping work as a group! So every scab reduces the effectiveness of the strike. And in the sad conditions of great poverty produced by working class people not getting paid, there is tremendous anger against the scabs. So miners on the bus were the scabs for that day. As soon as Billy's father got on that bus, he was a scab.

Going back - Again there were no details, but clearly the strike failed. This means that the union members could no longer hold out against the management. This strike lasted a year and most average people can't survive for even a few months without a paycheck, so imagine the deprivation these people went through. The union has a treasury that helps but eventually the money runs out and the miners are forced to go back without having gained any improved conditions and possibly even having to to take paycuts or other reductions in their contract. Also, remember a union consists of large groups of people working together, so there were probably many mines involved not just the Elliott's and maybe part of the loss was that some of those mines WERE closed! The Elliotts kept their jobs but possibly hundreds of other miners lost theirs.

[–] HelveticaFont 9 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJF67Ma9VRs