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- Heath's imposition of an incomes policy in an attempt to deal with inflation led to a national coal strike in 1972. When Heath responded by declaring a state of emergency, waves of strikes broke out in the coal, power, and transport industries. The ensuing power shortages led to the imposition of a three-day week in December.
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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. The strike began on 9 January 1972 and ended on 28 February 1972, when the ...
- 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
What has not been generally recognised, however, was how lucky the Government was to avoid defeat, as Edward Heath’s Government had been defeated by the mineworkers a decade before. Coal played a dominant role in Britain's industrial development in the nineteenth century, and the struggles of the 1980s hinged upon the inheritance of that ...
Sep 14, 2023 · These differences ultimately prevented the unity among miners that had forced previous governments to capitulate — as did Edward Heath’s in 1974, then Thatcher herself in 1981, when plans to...
- Jonathan Mcaloon
Feb 17, 1972 · Prime Minister Edward Heath's Government faces its gravest crisis as a result of Britain's first national coal strike since 1926. The walkout has now dragged on for six weeks, forcing...
To reduce electricity consumption, and thus conserve coal stocks, the Conservative Prime Minister, Edward Heath, announced a number of measures under the Fuel and Electricity (Control) Act 1973 on 13 December 1973, including the Three-Day Work Order, which came into force at midnight on 31 December. Commercial consumption of electricity would ...
After a 16.5% pay increase was rejected by NUM, its members voted again on strike action. This time it was an overwhelming majority in favour of a strike to begin on 5th February. In response, Edward Heath called a general election believing the public sided with the government on the issue of the miners’ strike.
