National Union of Mineworkers

Also known as	NUM
Category	Law & Custom

The trade union of British coal mineworkers since 1 January 1945, formed from the Miners' Federation of Great Britain as one national union with area unions beneath a national executive; it fought the national strikes of 1972, 1974 and 1984 to 1985 and shrank with the industry to a few hundred members.

Historical usage

The government had taken control of the mines in both wars, the owners had come to accept national agreements, and nationalisation was in sight; a conference at Nottingham in 1944 agreed on a national union, a ballot of the men supported it, the Federation altered its constitution and the National Union of Mineworkers came into being on 1 January 1945, with 423,085 members the following year. The old county associations became its areas, twenty of them, fourteen geographical and six occupational, from Yorkshire with 115,000 members and Durham with 106,000 down to Bristol with 400, and the South Wales Miners' Federation became the South Wales Area. Under the National Coal Board from 1947 the union negotiated nationally, and the National Power Loading Agreement of the 1960s was its work; through the Wilson governments hundreds of pits closed with little resistance from the leadership, and the unofficial strike of 1969 over surface workers' pay led to the ballot threshold for a national strike being cut from two-thirds to 55 per cent in 1970. The strikes of 1972 and 1974 followed. When Arthur Scargill became president in 1981 the union had about 170,000 members; the strike of 1984 to 1985 against the closure programme, called without a national ballot after the threshold was reduced to a simple majority, ended in defeat and in the breakaway Union of Democratic Mineworkers in Nottinghamshire. The closures that followed took the industry and the membership with it: 750 members in 2016, 311 in 2018, 196 in 2023, from a headquarters at 2 Huddersfield Road, Barnsley.

How it worked

The basic unit is the lodge or branch at each pit, which represents the men to the management, controls its own finances and elects a delegate to the area council; the area council and its executive handle price lists, wages and compensation for the collieries in their area and answer to the national executive, which meets monthly and works through committees for safety and health, social insurance, finance, economics and organisation. The annual conference each July is the governing body, and a national strike needs a conference and a ballot. The areas kept a real autonomy, each with its own president, general secretary and headquarters, and could call strikes of their own, which made the union's militancy vary from coalfield to coalfield and set area against area.

Why it was used

A single employer needed a single union to bargain with. The National Coal Board set wages nationally, and only a national union could meet it; the same structure made the national strikes of the 1970s possible and the strike of 1984 to 1985 a national confrontation.

Risks & limitations

The union's structure was its weakness as well as its strength. Area autonomy let Nottinghamshire work through 1984 and leave the union altogether, and the decision to strike without a national ballot divided the coalfields as nothing before had. Its political weight, affiliated to the Labour Party and opposed to the European Community from 1971, rose and fell with the number of men underground, and that number went from 700,000 to a few thousand within its lifetime.

Regional variation

Every coalfield had its area, and the areas kept their old names and habits: the Yorkshire Area, the Durham Area and the South Wales Area that had been the Fed. The craft and official grades had areas of their own, for cokemen, colliery officials, craftsmen and power workers.

Related terminology

Miners' Federation of Great Britain, Miners' Strike, Miners' Welfare Fund, National Coal Board, Power Loading

Mines associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 30 linked records — the term page is not an index.

Bedwas Navigation Colliery — Caerphilly (well documented example)
Named twice in this record, first in the history: “…1985 the NCB declared the pit closed on geological grounds. The National Union of Mineworkers pressed for an independent colliery review under the October 1984…”
Califat Coal Mine — Leicestershire (well documented example)
Named in this record’s history: “…boiler house structures with financial help from the Leicestershire National Union of Mineworkers, trusts and an anonymous donor. From 2016 to 2019 the society…”
Gedling Colliery — Nottinghamshire (well documented example)
Named in this record’s history: “…migrants from Eastern Europe and the West Indies; the colliery's NUM branch banner carried the words 'Brothers Beneath the Surface'.…”
Hickleton Main Colliery — South Yorkshire (well documented example)
Named in this record’s current condition: “…of the 161 miners who died at the pit over the years. The colliery's National Union of Mineworkers banner survives and has been photographed.”
Lofthouse Colliery — West Yorkshire (well documented example)
Named in this record’s history: “…of Arthur Scargill, then a compensation agent for the Yorkshire NUM, who spent six days with the bereaved families and then used…”

Disasters associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 7 linked records, most direct relationship first.

Barony Colliery shaft collapse, 1962 (contextual relationship)
Named 3 times in this record, first in the aftermath: “…Cumnock Trades Council, town councillors, the churches and the NUM built it from a first meeting of about a dozen people in a community…”
Brookhouse Colliery Overwind, 1958 (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s investigation: “…normal winding resumed on 6 March 1958, with representatives of the National Union of Mineworkers, the British Association of Colliery Management, the National Coal…”
Cardowan Colliery explosion, 1982 (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s investigation: “The National Coal Board, the National Union of Mineworkers and Her Majesty's Inspectors investigated jointly, with the Safety…”
Featherstone Massacre (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s memorials: “…for the centenary in 1993 by Arthur Scargill, then president of the National Union of Mineworkers. The anniversary is still marked locally and has been the subject of…”
Lofthouse Colliery disaster, 1973 (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s investigation: “…Arthur Scargill, then a compensation agent for the Yorkshire NUM, produced 19th-century mining notebooks at the inquiry to…”

Sources

(secondary) Miners' Federation of Great Britain — Wikipedia
(secondary) National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) — Wikipedia
(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