They have been dubbed the national union of ministers - the NUM - and are flexing muscles that have not been stretched for a while.
If I could get used to navigating via the numeric keypad with the num-lock key off, I'd be perfectly happy with the new keyboard.
CNN: Tips and taps to relieve your carpal tunnel and repetitive stress syndrome
The stand-off is thought to have taken place between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) - allied to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party - and the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).
My last interview with him was in February 2012 at a rally in Birmingham to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gates, when as an up-and-coming NUM activist he organised the flying pickets which succeeded in closing the Saltley coke depot, forcing the then Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath to concede a 27% pay increase.
BBC: Analysis: Arthur Scargill's silence over Thatcher death
Heath's defeat in 1974 and the re-election of a Labour government helped entrench the NUM's industrial muscle.
BBC: Analysis: Arthur Scargill's silence over Thatcher death
Mr Scargill, 74, said he was given use of the rented three-bed Barbican flat for life when he became NUM president in 1982, a tenure that lasted 20 years.
Ex-miners' union president Arthur Scargill has reached an out-of-court settlement with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) over expense claims.
Mr Pitt-Payne also said he would seek declarations that the NUM should pay for the Barbican flat, including expenses from June 2011, and for the fuel, security and accountancy costs incurred by Mr Scargill since they were stopped in April 2010.
Mr Scargill was president of the NUM until July 2002 and led the union during the year-long miners' strike from 1984 to 1985.
Counsel for the NUM, Nicholas Davidson QC, argued the case was about whether an obligation existed - not whether one ought to exist.
应用推荐