Miners' Federation of Great Britain

The national federation of the county and regional miners' unions of England, Scotland and Wales from 1889 to 1944, which spoke for them on wages, hours and legislation while each association kept its own rules, officers and funds; reconstituted as the National Union of Mineworkers on 1 January 1945.

Historical usage

When the colliery owners rejected a pay claim from the Yorkshire Miners' Association in 1888, the districts that did not tie wages to the selling price of coal met in a series of conferences, and at the Temperance Hall in Newport in November 1889 they formed the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. Benjamin Pickard of Yorkshire was its first president, Sam Woods of Lancashire and Cheshire vice-president, Enoch Edwards of the Midland Counties treasurer and Thomas Ashton secretary; Keir Hardie sat among the Scottish delegates. Its first objects were an eight-hour day from bank to bank for every underground worker, attendance at inquests, and compensation for miners killed in incidents involving more than three persons. The founding unions were largely the Federated District of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, the Midlands, Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales, whose coal was sold at home; the sliding-scale districts came later, South Wales through its own Federation in 1899, Northumberland in 1907 and Durham in 1908. Membership was 250,000 by 1890, over 600,000 by 1910 and peaked at more than 945,000 in 1920, falling to 756,000 in 1926 and about 530,000 by 1930. It demanded nationalisation from 1914, put the case to the Sankey Commission in 1919, took the name Mineworkers' Federation in 1932 as enginemen, firemen and electricians joined, and in 1944 at Nottingham agreed to become a single national union, which it did on 1 January 1945.

How it worked

The Federation was not a union but a federation of unions. Each county association kept its own officers, headquarters and benefit funds and sent delegates to the Federation's conferences and executive at 50 Russell Square; the Federation negotiated national questions, lobbied Parliament and called the districts out together when a national dispute came, as in 1912 and 1926. In 1918 the majority resolved to campaign for a single National Wages Board, which broke up the Federated District's separate conciliation board and, in the view of the Midlands historian A. R. Griffin, did the miners of the Midlands incalculable harm without doing good to anyone else.

Why it was used

No county union could move the owners of another coalfield or the government of the day. A federation could demand an eight-hour day, a minimum wage and public ownership for every pit at once, and from 1889 until nationalisation it was the voice of the industry's workforce.

Risks & limitations

A federation of autonomous unions could be divided against itself. The sliding-scale districts stayed out for nearly twenty years, the Federated District resented the national wages policy, and the defeat of 1926 cost it a quarter of its members in four years. Its weakness was the argument for the single union that replaced it.

Regional variation

South Wales joined through the South Wales Miners' Federation, the Fed, formed in 1898 after a strike against the sliding scale; Scotland through the Scottish Miners' Federation of 1894; the north-eastern associations last of all. The 1932 rename to Mineworkers' Federation reflected the craft unions that had joined.

Related terminology

Checkweighman, Coal Mines Act 1911, Miners' Strike, Miners' Welfare Fund, National Coal Board, National Union of Mineworkers

Mines associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 10 linked records — the term page is not an index.

• Bedwas Navigation Colliery — Caerphilly (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…cent pay cut in the mid-1920s; riots followed, and the South Wales Miners' Federation was banned from the pit. After a two-month stoppage, non-union…”
• Maerdy Colliery — Rhondda Cynon Taf (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…1926 General Strike and lock-out, was suspended from the South Wales Miners' Federation and then expelled in 1930; production did not fully resume until…”
• Taff Merthyr Colliery — Merthyr Tydfil (well documented example)
  Named twice in this record, first in the history: “…highly unusual condition of employment: no member of the South Wales Miners' Federation could work there, and instead miners were required to join a company…”
• Brynna Colliery — Rhondda Cynon Taf (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…133 at No. 3, raising 75,000 tons. In August 1928 the South Wales Miners' Federation signed up 80 per cent of the men for the first time since 1926; the…”
• Brynwith Colliery — Bridgend (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…the breakaway South Wales Miners' Industrial Union until the Miners' Federation forced it to sign the conciliation agreement. Brynwith employed 507…”

Disasters associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 15 linked records, most direct relationship first.

• Abercynon Colliery Haulage Accident, 1906 (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s investigation: “…for the Home Office; Tom Richards MP, general secretary of the Miners' Federation, with Ben Davies, miners' agent, and A. T. James, solicitor, for the…”
• Caedean Slant explosion, 1909 (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s investigation: “…the deputy coroner W. W. Brodie of Llanelly, with Mr Randell for the Miners' Federation and Mr Graham and Albert Jones for the company, and was adjourned to…”
• Caradog Vale Colliery inundation, 1906 (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s aftermath: “…jury found Kingdom not guilty after a few minutes. The South Wales Miners' Federation then sued the company at common law. In November 1906 it settled,…”
• Diglake Colliery Inrush, 1895 (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the rescue and recovery: “…be restrained from throwing herself down the shaft, went home. The Miners' Federation's observers later argued that a drift driven from twenty yards up…”
• Glynea Colliery fall of coal, 1908 (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…to the feet of the props, and the inquiry was adjourned so that the Miners' Federation could send representatives.”

Sources

1. (secondary) Miners' Federation of Great Britain — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) National Union of Mineworkers: history and structure (Coalfield Web Materials) — Swansea University, South Wales Coalfield Collection

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026