Never to cross a picket line was a question of honour. This law proved to be a highly effective aspect of the government's handling of the 1984/5 strike as it made life extremely difficult for the miners and their families, contributing to the eventual return to work. It was a decade of struggle against the insidious forces of the Government and its state. These will bring together those former miners and their support groups who fought for their jobs in the late 1970s and early eighties, culminating in the Great Miners' Strike of 1984/85. When asked the same question during 510 December 1984, 51% had most sympathy for the employers; 26% for the miners; 18% for neither and 5% did not know. Not long into the strike the slogan was invented, close a pit, kill a community. [48]:71, The Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher enforced a law that required unions to ballot members on strike action. In the post-war consensus, policy allowed for closures only where agreed to by the workers, who in turn received guaranteed economic security. David Hart, a farmer and property developer with libertarian political beliefs, did much to organise and fund working miners. Why did the government believe a pit closure programme was essential? David Peace's novel GB84 is set during the strike. [22]:96 David John Douglass, a branch delegate at Hatfield Colliery dismissed the suggestions as the Doncaster pits also had large numbers of displaced and Polish miners, yet it was amongst the most militant areas of the NUM. At the end of 1981, the miners elected a new leader in the hard-left Yorkshireman Arthur Scargill, who made no secret of his eagerness for a confrontation with the government. Initially the threshold for striking was not met; although a majority had voted for strike action, it was not enough. [18]:157158 On 25 May, a writ issued in the High Court by Colin Clark from Pye Hill Colliery, sponsored by Hart, was successful in forbidding the Nottinghamshire area from instructing that the strike was official and to be obeyed. Chronology Of Major Events In British Coal Miners' Strike With AM Women's Activism, Community, and Gender in the 19841985 British Miners' Strike. Few major trade unions supported the NUM, primarily because of the absence of a vote at national level. Women ran the home and often took control of the pay packet, giving their man pocket money for drink and cigarettes. You can. [19]:164 During the 1972 strike, violent confrontations between striking NUM and non-striking NACODS members led to an agreement that NACODS members could stay off work without loss of pay if they were faced with aggressive picketing. [48]:111 Tony Benn was vocal in support of Scargill's leadership during the strike. [citation needed], Throughout the strike, the South London group Test Dept travelled on their "battle bus" to Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, Paddington and Glasgow. When Margaret Thatcher Crushed a British Miners' Strike Very quickly, therefore, the strike became a trial of strength between two exceptionally abrasive public figures. 00:00, 8 MAR 2009. His character has been blacklisted due to striking a police officer and has served a six-month prison sentence for the offence. Coal Miners Strike 1984-1985 What was the Strike about? The 1994 European Union inquiry into poverty classified Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire as the poorest settlement in the country and one of the poorest in the EU. March 5 - Britain's biggest coal region, Yorkshire, calls a county-wide strike starting March 12 after the National Coal Board announces the imminent closure of two mines. [18]:229 The Yorkshire area's reliance on mass picketing led to a neglect of fundraising, and many Yorkshire strikers were living in poverty by the winter of 1984. [98] The support groups organised collections outside supermarkets, communal kitchens, benefit concerts and other activities. Are essential cookies that ensure that the website functions properly and that your preferences (e.g. BBC Inside Out - Miners' strike revisited [97], In the early weeks of the strike, the media reported that miners' wives in Nottinghamshire were encouraging their husbands to defy the flying pickets and were against the strike. From these interviews I shall be selecting about fifty for extensive use in the book. [3]:ix, The NCB was encouraged to gear itself towards reduced subsidies in the early 1980s. Ex-miners who took part in the 1984 strike and now work at the National Coal Mining Museum are back on the picket line to demand higher wages. [74][75], Writing in the Industrial Relations Journal immediately after the strike in 1985, Professor Brian Towers of the University of Nottingham commented on the way the media had portrayed strikers, stating that there had been "the obsessive reporting of the 'violence' of generally relatively unarmed men and some women who, in the end, offered no serious challenge to the truncheons, shields and horses of a well-organised, optimally deployed police force. This backup plan was not needed and was not implemented. Miners were men; the only women employed at the pit were cooks, cleaners or office staff. [115][116], A murder in Annesley, Nottinghamshire in 2004 was the result of an argument between former members of the NUM and UDM, indicating continued tensions. "[18]:303 Scargill became president of the NUM for life in 1985. The 1984-85 Miners' Strike After a period of relative stability in the Second World War and the early post-war period, the British coal industry (nationalised in 1947) underwent a massive contraction from 700,000 employed in 1957 to 300,000 by 1970, as alternative fuels were used to produce energy. In 1983, Thatcher appointed Ian MacGregor to head the National Coal Board. Arthur Scargill hits out against "blackmail money" The National Coal Board advertised a new christmas pay packet of up to 650 to bribe striking miners back to work. https://www.youtube.com/embed/8n8BeD6fkwc?controls=0. How much money do coal miners make an hour? Twenty-five years later, on 6 May 2010, Election Day, Pattison took David Peace to Easington to interview three of the people caught up in the strike. NUM secretary Jimmy Hood reported his car was vandalised and his garage set on fire. [127], There is a prevailing view that Arthur Scargill, the NUM National President, called the strike. The government viewed the legislation not as concerned with saving public funds but "to restore a fairer bargaining balance between employers and trade unions" by increasing the necessity to return to work. On 19 April 1984 a Special National Delegate Conference was held where there was a vote on whether to hold a national ballot or not. Strike-breakers in the militant areas were not easily forgiven for breaking the strike and going against the community. In Leicestershire only 31 miners went on strike for the full 12 months[87]:7 and in South Derbyshire only 17, but these areas were not targeted by pickets in the same way as Nottinghamshire. A selection of the photographs together with the interviews were published in book form 'No Redemption' (Flambard Press). The Miners' Strike in Scotland 1984-1985 | Canmore But instead of calling a national strike, Scargill encouraged the regions to follow suit individually. [9] Poverty increased in former coal mining areas, and in 1994 Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire was the poorest settlement in the country. [129], Ken Loach made three films about the strike. Like Scargill, Mrs Thatcher struck a remarkably aggressive, uncompromising tone right from the start. It's now or never for Britain's mineworkers. On 5 March 2010, the 25th anniversary of the strike, an artwork by visual artist Dan Savage was unveiled in Sunderland Civic Centre. Then, in March 1984, the Coal Board announced plans for a new wave of pit closures. [18]:2526, The NUM balloted its members for national strikes in January 1982, October 1982 and March 1983 regarding pit closures and restrained wages and each time a minority voted in favour, well short of the required 55% majority. ", Reicher, Stephen, and Nicolas Hopkins. "Female involvement in the miners' strike 19841985: Trajectories of activism. An additional law passed by the Conservative government as part of their strategy for handling a strike was the 1980 Employment . [18]:101 Many families in South Yorkshire complained that the police were abusive and damaged property needlessly whilst pursuing pickets. Cabinet papers released in 2014 indicate that MacGregor wished to close 75 pits over a three-year period. Thirty years after Britain's mining communities were convulsed by the Great Miners' Strike, . Miners left their pits to fight the attempt of the Thatcher government to close the collieries, break the miners union and the labour movement in general, and open the way to a free market economy in which deregulated financial capitalism would be set free by the Big Bang of 1986. It was set in the fictional town of Grimley, a thin disguise for the hard-hit ex-mining village of Grimethorpe, where some of it was filmed. [18]:228[77], Media reports alleged that senior NUM officials were personally keeping some of the funds. Meanwhile the newspapers played up every skirmish for all it was worth. The comradeship of miners developed underground continued about ground slaking their thirst in the Miners Welfare, playing football or rugby, meeting local girls at the Welfare or rugby club. ", Spence, Jean, and Carol Stephenson. Free learning resources from arts, cultural and heritage organisations. [21]:293 On 12 March 1984, Scargill declared the NUM's support for the regional strikes in Yorkshire and Scotland, and called for action from NUM members in all other areas but decided not to hold a nationwide vote which was used by his opponents to delegitimise the strike. The year-long strike that followed changed the political, economic and social history of Wales forever. The life-history interview makes it possible to explore both the political and the personal, the public and the private, in the testimony of the interviewees. [45], Scargill said the government had a long-term strategy to close more than 70 pits. Billy Elliot the Musical Live | The Coal Miners' Strike of 1984-1985 Miners forged their sense of themselves as the shock troops of the Industrial Revolution. The catalyst for the strike was the announcement by the . [16] The industry was restructured between 1958 and 1967 in cooperation with the unions, with a halving of the workforce; offset by government and industry initiatives to provide alternative employment. [113] South Yorkshire became an Objective 1 development zone and every ward in the City of Wakefield district was classified as in need of special assistance. When the owners refused to negotiate with the union, miners appealed to President Roosevelt to . The manager of the militant Yorkshire Main Colliery said at the time of the pit's vote to close in October 1985, "I know people who abused us and threatened us on the picket line and then were the first to put in for redundancy. The Kent miners were successful in raising funds from sympathetic socialists in London and from trade unions in continental Europe, which allowed the Kent strikers to maintain a higher standard of living that those in other parts of Britain and generated some resentment. [47] The Labour-dominated councils of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Wakefield reduced council-house rents and local tax rates for striking miners, but the Conservative Selby Council refused any assistance, although the Selby pits had higher numbers of commuters. Between the end of the strike and privatisation, pit closures continued with many closures in the early-1990s. 20,000 jobs The catalyst for the strike was the announcement by the National Coal Board (NCB) on 6th March 1984 that it intended to cut national capacity by 4 million tonnes and close 20 pits with the loss of 20,000 jobs. By entering your details, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. ", Allen, V. L. "The year-long miners' strike, March 1984 March 1985: a memoir. Timeline of UK miners' strike of 1984-85 - UPI Archives When asked the same question in August 1984, 9% said responsible; 84% said irresponsible and 7% did not know.[73]. Kent Miners' Association - Wikipedia The biggest rail strike in 30 years is causing severe disruption to passengers this week, with the walkout of at least 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union. [83] The supply of Polish coal to British power stations during the strike led to a brief picket of the embassy of Poland in London. Very difficult time for the miners, The end of the strike 03/03/1985, the NUM voted 98 -91 in favour of a return to work. 3. The much-reduced coal industry was privatised in December 1994, ultimately becoming UK Coal. The number of strikes fell sharply in 1985 as a result of the "demonstration effect" and trade union power in general diminished. Ex-miners who took part in 1984 strike return to picket line at She referred to union leaders as "the enemy within" and claimed they did not share the values of other British people; advocates of the strike misinterpreted the quote to suggest that Thatcher had used it as a reference to all miners.[62]. The 2014 film Pride, directed by Matthew Warchus, is based on a true story of a group of LGBT activists who raised funds to assist and support families in a Welsh mining village.[136]. [19]:71, Welfare benefits had never been available to strikers but their dependents had been entitled to make claims in previous disputes. And while the pits closed, the heritage of the mining industry was preserved through mining museums, the revival of banner-making for the Durham miners gala, and the political struggle continues through the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign. Amazing photographs of the miners' strike that tore Britain apart Very emotion time, Food Centres were opened for the miners People collected money for the miners. [18]:165, In September, Lord Justice Nicholls heard two cases, in the first, North Derbyshire miners argued that the strike was illegal both at area level, as a majority of its miners had voted against, and at national level, as there had been no ballot. Stabilisation occurred between 1968 and 1977, when closures were minimised with the support of the unions even though the broader economy slowed. For the period after the strike two dominant narratives are in tension. "[82], Polish trade union Solidarity criticised Scargill for "going too far and threatening the elected government", which influenced some Polish miners in Britain to oppose the strike. Police action during the strike has also been criticised, for instance, in South Yorkshire complaints were made against police for unnecessary property damage caused whilst engaging with pickets. Which Side Are You On? Womens Experiences at the First Coeducational College at the University of Oxford, Selected further resources for research and study, Co-curating diverse histories with Uncomfortable Oxford, Exploring Histories of Health and Medicine in Oxford, OUDCE (Oxford University Department for Continuing Education), Revelations: Black History in Portraiture. Desperate to preserve their jobs and communities, which often depended entirely on the local pit, the Yorkshire miners walked out, as did their Scottish counterparts. The miners from Bentley went out on strike during the 1984-1985 Miners' Strike . It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency. [48]:227 It was prevented by an injunction from the High Court. The two highly successful national strikes of . Many of the social scenes were filmed in the former colliery town of Thorne, near Doncaster. Subscribe from 19.99 every 6 issues and receive a book of your choice worth up to 30 PLUS free access to HistoryExtra.com, Save 65% on the shop price when you subscribe today - Get 13 issues for just $49.99, Your guide to the miners strike of 198485, The 1888 Matchgirls strike: how a group of East End women changed British labour history. Often took control of the coal miners' strike 1984 and its state families in South Yorkshire complained that website! Was a question of honour miners ' strike, March 1984 March 1985: a.. The union, miners appealed to President Roosevelt to, cultural and heritage organisations alleged that senior officials! Of a vote at National level alleged that senior coal miners' strike 1984 officials were personally some... 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