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The 1972 United Kingdom miners' strike was a major dispute over pay between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Conservative Edward Heath government of the United Kingdom. Miners' wages had not kept pace with those of other industrial workers since 1960.
- A Looming Energy Crisis
- Strike Action
- The Three Day Working Week in Action
- The Solution? A General Election
- Trade Union Disputes Were Far from Over However
Britain was largely reliant on coal for energy at the time, and whilst mining had never been a hugely well-paid industry, wages stagnated following the end of the Second World War. By the 1970s, the National Union of Mineworkers proposed a 43% pay rise for its members, threatening to strike if their demands were not met. After negotiations between ...
In 1973, there was a global oil crisis. Arab countries embargoed oil supplies to countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War: whilst Britain did not use large amounts of oil, it was a secondary source of energy. When the miners had further pay disputes and voted for strike action, the government was extremely concerned. In order to conser...
From 1 January 1974, electricity was severely limited. Businesses had to limit their electricity usage to three consecutive days a week, and within that hours were severely limited. Essential services like hospitals, supermarkets and printing presses were exempt. TV channels were forced to stop broadcasting promptly at 10:30pm every night, people w...
On 7 February 1974, Prime Minister Edward Heath called a snap election. The February 1974 general election was dominated by the three day working week and miners’ strike as an issue: Heath believed that this was a politically opportune time to hold an election because he thought, broadly speaking, the public agreed with the Tories’ hardline stance ...
Whilst Labour’s actions brought the disastrous three day working week to an end, disputes between the government and trade unions were not permanently settled. In late 1978, strikes began again as trade unions demanded pay rises which the government was unable to give whilst simultaneously controlling inflation. Strikes began with Ford workers, and...
- Sarah Roller
Nov 11, 2004 · The miners’ strike of 1984-85 was essentially about the closure of pits where the market value of the coal extracted fell short of the cost of production. The NCB wanted to continue the steady programme of colliery closures; the government endorsed this approach, but the NUM leadership resisted.
The Three-Day Week was one of several measures introduced in the United Kingdom in 1973–1974 by Edward Heath's Conservative government to conserve electricity, the generation of which was severely restricted owing to industrial action by coal miners and railway workers.
Jan 9, 2022 · This decision sparked the use of flying pickets, country-wide power cuts, and a momentous period of industrial action: it was the first of two strikes that, by the close of 1974, would bring Edward Heath’s Conservative government to its knees.
During the 1970s, the industry was hit by two major strikes. In 1972 Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath caved in when the miners went on strike for more pay. When another miners' strike began in 1974, Mr Heath called a snap general election hoping to rally public support against the miners.
This time the union demanded a 35% increase in salaries, but Edward Heath had just brought in a policy capping public sector pay rises to combat the ever-increasing inflation rates. In response to the government’s rejection of their proposal, NUM asked its members to vote on a strike.
