FORMER Yorkshire miners walked out on strike over pay today and were joined on the picket line outside their pit by former union president Arthur Scargill.

Caphouse Colliery, near Wakefield in West Yorkshire, is the centrepiece of the National Coal Mining Museum of England. The colliery ceased production in 1985.

The museum’s 45 staff include 30 Yorkshire ex-miners who maintain the pit and conduct underground tours.

The Unison members voted by 97 per cent for strike action over pay and are calling for a £2,000 across the board increase.

Staff rejected a proposed 4.2 per cent plus 25p an hour increase from the charitable board, which runs the museum.

The one-week strike will be followed by strikes every weekend — the museum’s busiest time — and at Christmas if no agreement is reached.

Among the strikers is Eric Richardson, 74, a fitter and museum guide who spent his earlier working life in the Yorkshire coalfield. He is a veteran of picket lines at Saltley Gates, Grunwick and Orgreave.

He told the Morning Star: “We feel we have been pushed into this position with failed negotiations for the last three months.

“We hope today’s action will force the museum’s directors back around the negotiating table.”

Unison regional organiser Rianne Hooley said that the workers want an across-the-board pay increase to benefit the museum’s lowest-paid.

National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) former president Arthur Scargill, who is 83, joined the picket line alongside former NUM coalfield activists now working at Caphouse.

He told the Morning Star: “The museum workers posted a note through my letterbox asking if I would send a message, or even join the picket line, so of course I did.

“It was a very moving experience. The mood was extremely good. There were people there who had been involved in the 1972, 1974 and 1984-5 strikes and all the disputes after that.”

He urged Yorkshire trade unionists and the public to support the strikers.

The museum is run by an independent charitable board, but is 90 per cent funded by the government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The museum is shut and no-one could be contacted from the board of directors to comment.