UK Miners’ Strike (1984 - 85)

Tue Mar 06, 1984

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Image: One of seven miners who were arrested near Llanwern Steelworks being led away by the police [https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/]

On this day in 1984, the UK Miners’ Strike of 1984-85 began, leading to more than 26 million lost workdays in what the BBC termed “the most bitter industrial dispute in British history”.

The strike action was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which sought to oppose colliery closures, using the possibility of energy shortages as leverage (a tactic used in 1972). Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who wanted to reduce the power of the trade unions.

The strike was ruled illegal in September 1984, as no national ballot of NUM members had been held, and the labor action failed on March 3rd, 1985. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, with NUM’s defeat significantly weakening the trade union movement and providing a major victory for Thatcher and the Conservative Party.

The number of strikes fell sharply in 1985, and all of Britain’s working pits were closed in the following three decades. Poverty significantly increased in former coal mining areas; in 1994, Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire was the poorest settlement in the country.