The miners' strike of 1984–85 was a major industrial action to shut down the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent colliery closures. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency. 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.
Eric Graham Varley, Baron Varley, PC was an English politician and former Cabinet Minister on the right wing of the Labour Party.
The Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) is a British trade union for coal miners based in Nottinghamshire, England. Established in 1985 after a constitutional crisis in the National Union of Mineworkers, the UDM was given its certification on 6 December 1985, although it had effectively been in existence since the Nottinghamshire area of the NUM voted to secede from the federal union on 6 July 1985. After the events of the strike in 1984-5, the Nottinghamshire area of the NUM was involved in a number of disputes with the National Executive Committee that led to a ballot in May on empowering the Nottingham Area Committee to disassociate from the NUM. In ballots on 18 and 19 October on joining with Nottinghamshire in a new union, the South Derbyshire area of the NUM voted in favour by 51% and the Colliery Workers and Allied Trades Association voted in favour by almost 100%.
The Three-Day Week was one of several measures introduced in the United Kingdom by the Conservative government to conserve electricity, the generation of which was severely restricted owing to industrial action by coal miners. The effect was that from 1 January until 7 March 1974 commercial users of electricity were limited to three specified consecutive days' consumption each week and prohibited from working longer hours on those days. Services deemed essential were exempt. Television companies were required to cease broadcasting at 10.30 pm during the crisis to conserve electricity, although the restrictions were dropped after a general election was called.
Michael McGahey was a Scottish miners' leader and lifelong Communist, with a distinctive gravelly voice. He described himself as "a product of my class and my movement".
Peter Heathfield was a British trade unionist who was general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) between 1984 and 1992, including the period of the miners' strike of 1984/85.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is a trade union in South Africa. With a membership of 300,000 it is the largest affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. It was founded in 1982 as a black mine workers union by Cyril Ramaphosa and grew rapidly, winning bargaining recognition from the Chamber of Mines in 1983.
Bethuel Middleton Kitchen was a nineteenth-century politician from Virginia and West Virginia.
Lawrence Daly was a coal miner, trade unionist and political activist.
Ebenezer Edwards was a trade unionist and politician in Britain.
Samson Gwede Mantashe, popularly known as Gwede Mantashe is a South African politician, who as of 18 December 2017 serves as the National Chairperson of the African National Congress. He is also a former chairperson of the South African Communist Party and Secretary General of the ANC. On the 26th of February 2018 during a cabinet reshuffle by president Cyril Ramaphosa, Mantashe was made Minister of Mineral Resources.
Ian Lavery is a British Labour Party politician and former trade union leader from Northumberland who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wansbeck since the 2010 general election. Born and raised in Ashington, Lavery began work in the construction industry after leaving school before becoming a mining apprentice. Noted for being the sole apprentice to refuse to work during the miners' strike of 1984-1985, he gradually rose up the ranks of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and was chosen to succeed Arthur Scargill as NUM President in 2002.
James Edward Mortimer was a British trade unionist and the Labour Party General Secretary between 1982 and 1985.
William Ernest Jones, CBE was a British trade unionist.
Arthur Scargill is a British Marxist and trade unionist. He was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. Joining the NUM at the age of nineteen in 1957, he became one of its leading activists in the late 1960s. He led an unofficial strike in 1969, and played a key organising role during the strikes of 1972 and 1974, the latter of which helped in the downfall of Edward Heath's Conservative government.
The North Wales Miners' Association was a trade union representing coal miners in Wales.
Sammy Thompson was a British trade unionist.
Nicky Wilson is a British trade unionist.
Edward Jones was a Welsh trade union leader.
