I) Nicky Wilson, President of the NUM, 2010 to date.Īn NCB-trained electrician, Nicky described vividly the build-up to the strike in Scotland (over 11,000 miners). chaired by John Edmonds, Chair of H&P TUF Audio recordings of each contributor are avaialble via SoundCloud. Note: We produced an immediate short summary of all the contributions, by Roger Jeary, after the Conference, to which readers seeking a brief overview are referred. The scene was therefore set for the titanic struggle which would ensue in 1984-5. However, Arthur Scargill’s overwhelming election as National President in 1982, committed to fighting practically all pit closures (unless exhausted), generated a more combative mood in the union leadership. However, the NUM were unable to get a majority in a national ballot to resist closures, despite three attempts from 1981 to 1983, as miners voted overwhelmingly (69 to 31%) against strike action. Nevertheless, the union saw off the initial government/NCB attempt to close 20 pits in 1981, forcing a tactical retreat with the threat of a national strike, which the government was not yet ready for. The causus belli was to be pit closures and the NCB were encouraged to accelerate that process, which the NUM found hardest to combat, given the fragility of the different area impact of pit closures.As Prime Minister from 1979, her focus was on the NUM as she and her Ministers methodically prepared for a confrontation. An ‘aura of invincibility’ had now grown up around the miners’ union, but it called forth a deep reaction in the defeated Conservative Party, the emergence of Margaret Thatcher as leader, determined to defeat ‘union power’. In 1974, they won an even larger increase (27%) which undermined the Conservative government’s incomes policy, precipitated the three-day week and the general election which resulted in the fall of the government. In 1972, the NUM secured a major pay and conditions increase for all miners through a balloted national strike action.Pressure on the union to lodge substantial pay claims mounted and major areas like Yorkshire swung decisively towards more militant action. Moreover, changes in payment arrangements - the introduction of incentive bonuses which favoured the more productive pits and regions, was eroding the equalising role of a National Power-Loading Agreement of 1966. Mainly (but not exclusively), located in remote villages, the miners were a very close and self-sufficient community, working in a dangerous industry which generated a strong solidarity. However, in the inflationary late 1960s, pay had fallen behind comparable jobs in the ‘outside world’. The NUM was very much a federal union with financial, officerial and industrial action powers retained locally. Public ownership had heralded a new era after the Second World War, with coal as the country’s premier energy source, better pay and conditions (things like pit-head baths and canteens), strict health and safety powers enforced by union officials and better management relationships with the miners’ union.The Miners’ Federation is best remembered for its role in the 1926 General Strike. There were over 1million miners during the First World War. The coal industry played a central role in British energy policy, and in industrial/political history generally.Many speakers saw the strike as a continuation of the previous national coal disputes, especially those of 19, and so some background is important to provide a historical perspective. This titanic dispute was truly described as ‘the seminal event, politically and industrially, in post-war Britain’ Background and contributions - Dr Jim Moher
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