A wider context needs to be adopted in which the mining villages provide the foci but across which the connections are often much wider. From the start, Scargill was confident of victory. A. Dalziel, The Colliers' Strike in South Wales; p.8, for 1848-71, W.G. Bonus. 01 Jun 2019. When he became president of the whole NUM, he introduced these tactics to the picketers during the 1984 strike. You can listen to a podcast interview with Dominic about the early 1980s here, Dominic Sandbrook is historian and presenter, and a regular contributor to BBC History Magazine, Save up to 49% AND your choice of gift card worth 10* when you subscribe BBC History Magazine or BBC History Revealed PLUS! These wages were often essential for a family's survival. From an economic and ecological point of view, the answer is yes. If you want more information about what cookies are and which cookies we collect, please read our cookie policy. This meant that, unlike in 1972 and 1974, there would be no power cuts and no forcing the governments hand to come to the negotiating table. Ian McGregor was appointed in 1981 to de-nationalise the coal industry. You can change your cookie settings at any time. This was defined by being a breadwinner, a fighter, and a man who controlled his womenfolk. Noticed a typo? And yet, out of the strike came a rebirth in many ways. An additional law passed by the Conservative government as part of their strategy for handling a strike was the 1980 Employment . What were flying pickets in the miners' strike? So, was it a good thing that the miners lost? We found numerous cases of miners strikes due to a reduction in wages. Deep mining for coal was already on its death bed by 1984 as cheaper exports from abroad combined with a reluctance on the part of government to continue with subsidies, a changing energy culture and a rising environmental movement all conspired against the industry. Who was in power for the 1972 UK Miners' Strike? Ultimately many miners returned to work, and were forced to accept longer hours and lower pay. What percent pay rise did Joe Gormley, president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), demand in 1971? When did Margaret Thatcher become the first female Prime Minister of Great Britain? Wilkie was driving David Williams, a working miner, to the Merthyr Vale mine with a police escort on 30 November 1984. Coal mines in the UK As of 2021, there were. These included the development of power loading and mechanized cutting. Such as in Cramlington in 1865. Logically, coal mining had to go. | How Thatcher broke the miners' strike but at what cost? The Case of Marcella, Medieval Mediterranean Communities and Movement 1150-1350, Seeing the Caribbean: Pissarro, Gauguin and Matisse colouring the other, Staging the archive: reconstructing early modern state authority through practice as research, The Business Dealings of a Nun and Scholar of Oxford in the 15th Century, The Crimean Moment and Crucible: Just War, Principles of Peace, and Debates in Victorian Wartime Thought and Culture, 1854-6, The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots: a European news sensation. "But I think much more could have been obtained with a more determined and militant approach," he continued. That way, he would still get a strike without having to run the risk of a national ballot. Identify your study strength and weaknesses. When was the 'Three-Day working week' introduced by Edward Heath? By 1992, Grimethorpe Colliery had ceased operating and the miners had all been made redundant. Two striking miners dropped a 21kg concrete block from a bridge onto the car . $32k - $76k. Coal was formed between 170 and 300 million years ago. pp. Tens of thousands of miners went on strike following an announcement by Coal Board Chairman Ian McGregor that 20 uneconomic pits would have to close, putting 20,000 miners out of work. Whole populations of towns were dependant on employment from the mines. As the data prior to 1997 are from a different survey to those from 1997 onwards they are not directly comparable and so care should be taken when analysing long-term trends over time. History Hit. By the 1980s the British coal industry was one of the safest and most efficient in the world. by Abby Lee Hood September 6, 2021 Thatcher had secretly stockpiled supplies of both coal and coke in strategic sites around the country; her government had also entered into agreements with non-unionised haulage firms to break the pickets and carry the coal from storage facilities and coking plants to power stations and factories. Billy Elliot is about a young boy who finds his passion for dance. 85 reviews 27 salaries reported. The Monmouthshire Merlin reviewed the effects of the strike on not just the workers, but those around them. (comms@history.ox.ac.ukor +44 (0)1865 615000), Personal Circumstances and Contextualisation, Exercise Two - Indigenous Javanese Religion of the Republic of Indonesia, Modern British History 1850 to the present, Modern European History 1850 to the present, MSt in Global and Imperial History since 1400, MSc/MPhil in History of Science, Medicine and Technology, MSt/MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, History Skills Workshops (info for teachers), Ayahs, memsahibs and their children: empire migrants, Boston King and the Black Loyalists of the American Revolution. Here, historian Dominic Sandbrook revisits the longest and most acrimonious industrial dispute in Britains modern history: the miners strike of 198485. The stalemate produced by Thatchers preparations ground on for a year. The average weekly wage (in New Money) for miners Have all your study materials in one place. Unanswered Questions . There is detailed account of the government inquiry in the Glasgow Herald of the 5th December 1877. It also became cheaper to import coal from countries such as Poland and Australia rather than mining it in Britain. Free and expert-verified textbook solutions. 33 salaries reported, updated at 3 February 2023 Mines were the beating hearts of communities stretching from Scotland to Kent. It would take 2 tons of coal to make 1 ton of iron. The strike caused Britain's energy supplies to suffer greatly, and Heath had to schedule national blackouts. Scotlands worst mining disaster, which involved my great grandfather might have rated a mention. TV EYE reports from the North East where the particularly bitter memories of the 1926 coal strike fuel the deter. The Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiserprinted the minutes from a delegation of Miners of Northumberland and Durham. You can unsubscribe at any time. The number of miners under the national UMWA agreement with Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) has fallen from 180,000 at the time of the 110-day national strike in 1977-78 to barely. Three times Scargill pushed his members to vote for a national strike; three times they voted no. But this time was different. Moving Images of the 1980s UK Miners' Strike. In the much-bleaker American Wales the large and small Rhondda Valleys, the Cynon Valley and Taff Vale flowed east and south to their junction at Pontypridd, the regional capital of the NUM, and on to the sea at Cardiff. But it was more than that: to the communities involved, from Scotland and South Wales to Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, it often felt like an undeclared civil war, pitting village against village, family against family - even brother against brother. Children as young 8 could be found working for 12 or more hours a day in complete darkness. Many of our readers will remember the miners strike of 1980s. When another miners' strike began in 1974, Mr Heath called a snap general election hoping to rally public support against the miners. Despite the miners efforts, the government succeeded and in the end most of Britains coal mines were closed. Women and older children were used to move the tubs or wagons of coal out of the mines. Thatcher and the coal miners' strikes in the 1980s, Crime and Punishment in Industrial Britain, Advantages of North and South in Civil War, African Americans in the Revolutionary War, Civil War Military Strategies of North and South, Environmental Effects of The Columbian Exchange, Native Americans in the Revolutionary War, An industrial union of all Britain's coalminers, created in 1945, that represented the miners during the strikes, The government department formed in 1946 that ran Britain's coal industry after it was nationalised, A protest organised by employees in which they refuse to work until their demands are met or negotiated, A line of protesters outside a workplace during a strike, The TUC called a general strike to protest decreasing wages for coal miners and poor work conditions. From the 1960s, however, as pit closures set in, miners were redeployed to more efficient mines outside their area. Heath introduced the Three-Day Working Week at the start of 1974 to combat the 1973 Oil Crisis, and the second UK Miners' strike took place on 24. RM ATW5DE - Coal Miners Strike 1984 pickets face police as scabs enter the coal mine Gasgoine Pit Yorkshire. Many of its employees haven't been paid in weeks, but the company still loaded up a. Average earnings by occupation and districts. Not long into the strike the slogan was invented, close a pit, kill a community. Behind the women were politically active members of the local community and country as a whole, including Greenham Common women and gay and lesbian activists, who saw this struggle as a tipping point between social democracy, civil liberties and the welfare state and of the one hand, and on the other, neoliberalism, authoritarianism and austerity. The days of British workers digging lumps of coal out of the ground to burn in power stations were numbered. Fig. Over 10 million students from across the world are already learning smarter. A number of lawsuits were brought against South Yorkshire police and eventually they were forced to pay out compensation. Mining Economics / Wages In the 18 th and much of the 19 th century most mine workers were employed not by the mine owner but by a charter master or 'Butty' who had agreed to get coal for a fixed price per ton. 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. Roughly how many jobs were at risk when the National Coal Board announced its plans to reduce Britain's coal production by 4 million tonnes in March 1984? With the decline in the demand for coal, numbers in the industry continued to fall and by the early 1980s membership of the NUM was under 250,000. 4. (Jack Corn/EPA) Appalachian coal production has been on shaky ground almost since the industry's inception in the mid 19th century. You can adjust your preferences at any time. What was one of the defining violent events of the 1984 Miners' Strike? This led to legal action taken by out-of-work non-striking miners against Scargill's illegal strike. And Thatcher had another powerful weapon on her side the police. While many former miners faced unemployment, others went back to college and requalified for new professions. Thatcher appointed the ruthless Ian McGregor to the head of the National Coal Board in 1983. During the strike women came into their own, as we have seen, organising and staffing support groups, setting up soup kitchens, packing food parcels, raising funds, speaking in public, even joining picket lines. Life for the residents of Grimethorpe got worse following the closure. Total Pay. They would lose a lot more in the years to come. It would take years and millions of pounds of investment before the situation in Grimethorpe was reversed. The 7 longest serving British Prime Ministers, 12 'commoners' who had ceremonial state funerals, Winters of discontent: 6 of the worst winters in British history, 'Just print more money': History's worst cases of hyperinflation, The pagan roots of Pancake Day and Shrove Tuesday, Josephine Baker: The iconic performer turned WWII hero. This made coal mining one of the highest-paid working-class jobs in the country. The loss of the UK coal industry caused devastation across large swathes of the country, and some places are still only now recovering from it. Noticed a typo? Replacement jobs failed to materialize, businesses closed down and young people got used to the idea of either moving away or wasting the best years of their lives on the dole. The intention at the outset of the project, was to focus on a fixed number of mining villages, one for each coalfield. The miners, their families and their communities deserved better than that. The police launched mounted truncheon charges against the miners, leading to 51 pickets and 72 police being injured. The average salary for a Miner is 40,407 per year in United Kingdom. If they did not, and risks the safety of everyone in the colliery, they could be fined or imprisoned. Given the importance of mining in Scotland and the literacy of the Scottish population at this time, this seems to be a not very balanced coverage. Miners forged their sense of themselves as the shock troops of the Industrial Revolution. Here, however, the pit closed in 1962 so the miners worked further afield, down the Dulais Valley to Blaenant and Treforgan collieries, into the Swansea Valley at Abernant or over to Aberpergwm in the Neath Valley. We would like to use cookies to collect information about how you use ons.gov.uk. What other forms of energy came available in the 1960s besides coal? Full-time. Especially, during times of protests and strikes. When such differences lead to the cessation of labour, there is superadded great pecuniary loss, always falling most heavily, of course, upon the men, from the smallness of their resources but very injurious also to the owner, and detrimental, as well, if continued, to the shipping and other interests of the port. The strike was officially called to a halt on March the 3rd 1985. What crisis?" This time around the gloves would be off. The team's wages would be paid to the collier who was 'hewing' or cutting the coal, who was often the father of the children he worked with. As the centuries continued, the populations dependence on coal increased and more mines were opened, but it was during the industrial revolution that coal mining burgeoned. Whatever people thought of the issues at stake, millions were appalled by the scenes of open fighting between pickets and police, which became emblematic of the conflicted, confrontational 1980s. At these dates there were higher rates for power loaders which varied between districts. Lerne mit deinen Freunden und bleibe auf dem richtigen Kurs mit deinen persnlichen Lernstatistiken. The US government's ongoing assault on organized labor through the 1980s and 1990s meant that the mammoth energy conglomerates that dominated the coal industry were free to open non-union mines . From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, employment in British coal mining fell from over 700,000 to under 300,000. Many of the richest coal fields had been worked out and the number of miners had been decreasing over the previous few decades. Twice in recent years, in 1972 and 1974, the miners had struck for higher pay, and both times they had won. But the pits in these areas closed in the 1960s and 1970s so that miners travelled from here to the surviving pits on the coast, some of which actually tunnelled under the sea, at Seaham, Easington and Horden. It was a nine-day nationwide walkout of one million railwaymen, transport workers, printers, dockers, ironworkers and steelworkers supporting the 1.5 million coal miners who had been locked out. The 1980 Social Security Act had reduced the benefits that striking miners' families received. Get 6 issues for 19.99 and receive a 10 gift card* PLUS free access to HistoryExtra.com, Save 70% on the shop price when you subscribe today - Get 13 issues for just $49.99 + FREE access to HistoryExtra.com, Your guide to the miners strike of 198485, The 1888 Matchgirls strike: how a group of East End women changed British labour history. In County Durham the focus is on Chester-le-Street, where the pits at Pelton Fell and South Pelaw closed in the 1960s but which acted as a turntable between the inland plateau and the coastal area. Strikes have been used by miners as a form of protest for centuries. I have drawn till I have had the skin off me: the belt and chain is worse when we are in the family way. Many women emerged from the strike in a much stronger place that their husbands who had lost the fight and would soon lose their jobs. From 1 March the price of domestic coal rose by 22% and the price of coal for industrial use rose by over 7%, to generate an extra 370m in revenue to pay for the wage increases. When did the Trade Union Congress call the General Strike? He was sentenced to three months in prison. | Home page | Mining Hourly Rate. Many of these men had little capital and often paid wages in goods not But in Nottinghamshire, the majority of. 24th January 1974: The 1974 miners' strike began. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of theTerms and Conditions. Published by Gomer Press, 1987 (3rd Impression 1992) Welsh Teaching History Materials; a project funded by the Welsh Office Education Department and based at University College, Swansea. ]]> Miners had to demonstrate their masculinity. He is a coalface worker at Hatfield colliery, near Doncaster Bob Fitzpatrick: 'You must never become complacent, but equally you don't spend your time. Mining villages opened in Lancashire, Yorkshire, South Wales, Northumberland and Durham. The Miners Strike of 1984 was a turning point in British history. Miners lived scattered across a wide radius and this clearly diminished camaraderie and solidarity. Was it a good thing that the miners lost? He determined that at least twenty unprofitable pits must be closed immediately for economic reasons, which was met with great suspicion by the National Union of Mineworkers, in particular the unions leader, the firebrand Arthur Scargill. Furthermore, police officers were drafted in from outside the striking counties, so law enforcement was unsympathetic to the strikers. Are essential cookies that ensure that the website functions properly and that your preferences (e.g. Sources. The commission found that it was not just the conditions themselves that were brutal but also the treatment of the employees by the owners. So right from the start, the dispute was marked by intense bitterness and violent confrontations between striking and working miners. Two permissions have been secured from the interviewees, one that I may use the interviews for the current project, the to authorise the British Library to archive them in its oral history collection. Scargill had organised the flying pickets witnessed in the 1974 UK Miners' Strike when he was president of the Yorkshire NUM. 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. Both grew to be inseparable, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Unlike today, most of Britain's electricity came from coal, and so crisis struck when miners voted to strike over wages for six weeks between January and February 1972. During the summer of 1984, Wilson along with four others were flying pickets, travelling from their home in Yorkshire to support striking mineworkers in Nottinghamshire. By the early 1980s, domestic coal production was becoming ever more unprofitable. In South Wales, the initial focus is on Onllwyn, at the head of the Dulais Valley. Many other industries joined in solidarity with the miners. and demonstrated his inability to recognise the country's troubles. Everything you need for your studies in one place. There are signs, however, that this was gendered too, with daughters of miners doing better than their brothers. 8 hour shift. This report from Dundee Courier found that a miner was charged in contravention of the Moines regulation Act when he recklessly unlocked his safety lamp while working in the mine. The 1956 Clean Air Act restricted coal burning in fireplaces in favour of cleaner fuels, leading to a decline in demand. Search the newspapers for more miners strikes. The strike was the miners main weapon, and immediately provoked confrontation with employers, who were also ready to use the lockout to break miners resistance. The figures referred to are supplied annually by the National Coal Board as part of a special exercise, and comparable later information is not yet available to my Department. Many pits were considered uneconomic [25] to work at then current wage rates compared to cheap North Sea oil and gas, and in comparison to subsidy levels in Europe. continued in many areas. Not many old men are found in the mines. Mr. Peter Morrison If the miners wife did well, generally the children also did well, going to university and getting a professional job. Updated 09:31, 31 MAR 2013. Police Incident report from Northumbria, 1984. The newspapers had mixed opinions about the strike. It created legally binding agreements over wages and supply. The NUMs strategy for thwarting McGregors plan was simple. Thatcher's government reduced the power of the Trade Unions and the pressure they could exert on the government, ending the strike in 1985. We discover how individuals became involved in the strike, what strike and support action they were engaged in and what happened to them afterwards. McGregors approach to the mining industry was the same as it had been towards steel close unprofitable pits and drastically reduce the workforce.