The new legislation put into place by the Tory govenment that was designed to take certain power away from the unions was not really tested untill the miners strike of 1984. In 1981 the Conservative government threatened to close 23 pits, the unions threatened to strike and the government withdrew the planned closures. Many feel that that the confrontation with the free market government and the heavily subsidized coal miners has just been pushed out rather than truly averted.
That year the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in Yorkshire passed a resolution all but guaranteeing a strike should pits be closed for any reason other than exhaustion of the coal or geological problems that can’t be overcome. Because of the regional manner that the NUM was set up, this resolution was only binding in Yorkshire.
A couple of years later Ian McGregor was appointed to run the National Coal Board (NCB). The NCB controlled all nationalized coal mining in the UK and was the employer of the almost 200,000 miners. McGregor had previously turned around the nationalized British Steel company, taking from possibly the least efficient steel maker in Europe to breaking even. This was done by laying off about half the workforce over a two year period, and the NUM were rightfully concerned that his mandate as head of the NCB was similar.
In early 1984 McGregor announced the closure of 20 mines and the loss of 20,000 jobs. The reason given was to rationalize the public subsidy given to the industry by closing the most unprofitable pits. The government realized a strike was possible, perhaps even probable, and had taken steps. Coal was being stockpiled by the power stations, a number of power plants were converted from coal to to oil fired and signing contracts with road haulage companies incase the railways union, ASLEF, struck in sympathy or refused to cross picket lines.
The reaction from the NUM was predictable. Immediately 6000 Yorkshire miners walked off the job over the lack of consultation and called a strike vote for the 5th of March. The NCB announced that five pits (two in Yorkshire, one each in County Durham, Kent and Scotland) were to be closed with in 5 weeks.
On March 12th the NUM president Arthur Scargill announced the miners strike was to be nationwide.
The strength of feeling and observation of the strike was regional, and the government used this in an early attempt to break the union. The call to strike was almost universally observed in the coalfields of Yorkshire, Scotland, the North-East, South Wales and Kent, coincidently the places under most threat
In the huge fields of Lancashire miners were split, however the Lancashire union leaders stated the strike was official and would be respected. No ballot of the workers was ever called by the NUM and Nottinghamshire, an area where pits had been modernized, the mines were efficient and had significant reserves used this as the premise to ignore the strike call.
The NUM leadership and Arthur Scargill in particular allowed each region to call for the strike and never called a national ballot. There were a number of reasons for this. Most importantly it’s not clear that a majority would have voted to strike. Nottingham called a ballot and about 70% in the district rejected the call to strike. Traditionally strikes have been used to protest wages or working conditions, there is no history of using then to protest closure in the UK.
As the strike wore on there were increasingly violent clashes, the largest and most infamous was the so called “Battle of Orgrave”. It took place near Rotherham in June ’84, about 5,000 miners confronted about the same number of police, some mounted on horseback. This was just the most widely reported of a series of violent riots that took place over the summer resulting in the death of a taxi driver transporting a working miner to work.
The government mobilized police from all over the country to ensure the rights of those that chose to cross the picket lines. There was a policy of not using local police in the districts, the government preferred to bring in police to ensure there was little sympathy between the two sides.
The strike itself did not result in any day-to-day disruption or any significant impact to industry. Unlike previous strikes there were no power cuts and the electric generators were able to keep supplies flowing throughout the strike.
The strike officially ended in March 1985, almost exactly a year after it started. There was no new agreement between the union and the NCB. During a conference called to vote on returning to work Kent was the only NUM district that voted to stay out.
In 1983 the UK had 170 working mines and employed close to 200,000. In 2009, this number had decreased to four and less than 6,000. There was a significant round of closures in the early 90’s and there was very little protest from with in in the industry, despite there arguably being significantly more sympathy for the miners than there was in 1984.
Nottinghamshire miners had been led to believe that their jobs were relatively safe, but more mines in the district were closed by 1994. This was seen as a betrayal of promises the government had made to non-striking miners. They believed that their jobs would be safe and their industry had a future.
I must tell you … that what we have got is an attempt to substitute the rule of the mob for the rule of law, and it must NOT succeed. It must not succeed. There are those who are using violence and intimidation to impose their will on others who do not want it…. The rule of law must prevail over the rule of the mob”
Margaret Thatcher, 1984
We’ve had riot shields, we’ve had riot gear, we’ve had police on horseback charging into our people, we’ve had people hit with truncheons and people kicked to the ground…. The intimidation and the brutality that has been displayed are something reminiscent of a Latin American state
Arthur Scargill, 1984
2 Comments
As another child of Thatcher I get it, the turmoil and destruction of community.
“In the huge fields of Lancashire miners were split, however the Lancashire union leaders stated the strike was official and would be respected.”
Huge? There were only six Lancashire pits in production in March 1984 and one that was undergoing salvage operations having only recently been closed. The 6 Lancashire pits were all under threat of closure in 1984. The Lancashire coalfield was one of the oldest coalfields in the country and had the deepest coal seams anywhere in the world and also amongst the most adverse geological conditions to be found in any British coalfield, hence its unprofitability when compared to those of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, where the seams were horizontal and thicker and more suitable for machine mining.
“In early 1984 McGregor announced the closure of 20 mines and the loss of 20,000 jobs. The reason given was to rationalize the public subsidy given to the industry by closing the most unprofitable pits…The reaction from the NUM was predictable. Immediately 6000 Yorkshire miners walked off the job over the lack of consultation and called a strike vote for the 5th of March.”
Not true. There was a spontaneous strike on the announcement of the premature closure of 2 Yorkshire pits on 1 march 1984. The unofficial strike spread rapidly in Yorkshire and Yorkshire Area NUM declared it official. Only after that did MacGregor make the announcement of the closure of a further 20 pits. Scargill did not call a strike: it was called by the members of the Scottish and Yorkshire NUM who downed tools and their spontaneous stoppages were then made official by the their NUM area bureaucracies and then by the national union executive of the NUM in Sheffield.
“No ballot of the workers was ever called by the NUM…”
No national ballot was called by the National Union, but the NUM is a federative organization with autonomous areas. The NUM areas called ballots of their membership. Nottingham NUM did, with the expected result; South Wales Area NUM also had a strike ballot and voted against but quickly joined the strike to support other striking area after Yorkshire pickets requested their support. The Welshmen were not bullied out. They joined the Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, Scotland and Kent Areas of the NUM that were on strike. Lancashire Area NUM also had a ballot that resulted in a 3 to 2 vote against striking. Bold colliery in Lancashire, however, voted with a 65% majority to strike and its members refused to cross a Yorkshire picket of about 20 men who asked for support. There were 1,500 men employed at Bold. They certainly were not intimidated out by 20 Yorkshiremen. Bold pickets then asked neighbouring Lancashire collieries Sutton manor and Parkside for support, which was forthcoming despite those pits voting with a small majority not to strike. The Lancashire pits were soon all out with one notable exception, the Agecroft pit in Salford. Lancashire Area NUM then declared the strike official on march 26th. The men had voted with their feet, something ridiculed in some quarters but on the other hand praised whenever strikebreakers do just the same.
I was there, Dave. I was a miner Bold colliery that voted in a secret ballot organized by Lancashire NUM whether to strike.
Your random thoughts on this matter Dave are somewhat lacking in facts.