No other industry has had such a profound effect on the economic, industrial,
and political history of Britain as has the coal industry. As David Lloyd George
said, "In peace and war King Coal is the paramount lord of industry." The
industry had literally powered the industrial revolution. The unions' and coal
owners' political activism, and the unions' involvement in the Labour Party and
major strikes in the 20th Century gave it huge political significance.
Although the industry developed largely to supply the home market, by 1913 a
third of its output was exported - produced from over 3,200 mines employing over
one million men (ten per cent of the workforce). These facts alone placed the
industry in a pre-eminent position. Add the fact that the industry supplied the
furnaces of the iron and steel trade and the steam engines of the railways and
shipping, as well as the domestic household market (though coal and coal-gas)
then its pre-eminence in the British economy was assured. Indeed the 1893-94
miners' strike saw the first intervention of a British government in an
industrial dispute, such was the concern over the detrimental effect on the
economy of a shortage of coal.
The period before the First World War saw an increasing breakdown of
industrial relations. Tensions increased with the Tonypandy Riot in 1910, when
miners were locked out and troops deployed. The Miners' Federation of Great
Britain (MFGB) wanted a national minimum wage and national wage agreements,
while the coal owners wanted neither. The result was the 1912 strike, leading to
further government intervention. The strategic importance of coal during the
First World War led to state intervention on an unprecedented scale, with mines
being taken into government control (ending only in 1921). The miners used their
new-found bargaining strength to improve pay and conditions as well as to gain
access to government circles.
Lack of investment during the war, the postwar slump and stagnating trade saw
the beginnings of the decline of the industry. During the war Britain had lost
some of its overseas markets, a situation exacerbated by Germany being allowed
to export coal to Italy and France in part payment of war reparations. The
government's determination to stay with the Gold Standard meant a strong pound
further reduced export trade. The trade slump also meant that domestic usage
dropped. The traditional industries such as iron and steel required less coal as
their productivity decreased. The coal industry's productivity also decreased as
the coal became harder to mine. In order to ensure profitability, the coal
owners sought to reduce wages and increase working hours. The MFGB and the coal
owners were on a collision course, ultimately resulting in the 1926 General
Strike. The strike officially lasted 9 days, however the miners tenaciously
continued for another 6 months under their leader A.J. Cook's demand, "Not a
penny off the pay, not a second on the day." Eventually, however, they had to
admit defeat and returned to work accepting lower wages, longer hours and
district, rather than national wage agreements.
The aftermath of the strike and the world economic depression from 1929 hit
the industry hard. Mines closed and unemployment reached nearly 60 per cent in
some desperate areas - even Edward, Prince of Wales, on a visit to a depressed
South Wales mining village, declared that "something must be done." Not until
the nation began rearming for the Second World War did the industry recover.
This war saw even more state intervention and an urgent need for more miners as
the industry expanded to cope with war demand. A scheme to use military recruits
in the mines was introduced by Ernest Bevin; among this generation of
'Bevin boys' were comedian Eric Morecambe and actor Brian Rix.
The MFGB had called for nationalisation of the industry in 1894, a cause
taken up by the Labour Party in 1906 and finally realised in 1947 in the shape
of the National Coal Board. The harsh winter of 1947 led to a coal shortage - a
critical situation for a reviving economy and for households largely dependent
on coal for fuel and heating - which led to grumbling about nationalisation.
Investment was urgently needed, and in 1952 the NCB published 'The Plan for Coal',
a national plan for the reconstruction and reorganisation of the industry. This
plan was a qualified success. Output dropped slightly between 1947 and 1960, in
spite of the loss of over 100,000 miners and nearly 250 pits, but the industry
was more technologically advanced and economically stable - all changes
reflected in the NCB's long-running cinema series Mining Review (1947-83).
In spite of the economic stability, the 1970s, and more so the 1980s, saw
growing worker militancy led by the renamed MFGB, the National Union of
Mineworkers (NUM). The increased use of oil and nuclear power for electricity
and the advent of natural gas reduced coal's market still further, in spite of
increased productivity in the industry. The 1972 and 1974 miners' strikes were
concerned with pay, inflation having hit the British economy. The strikes were
successful because of the contemporary oil crisis, with the need for coal
assuring the miners a strong bargaining card. Indeed, the 1974 strike was seen
by many as causing the downfall of the Conservative government. The
Conservatives fought the 1974 election campaign on the slogan 'Who governs Britain?' - meaning the unions, specifically the NUM, or the government. The electorate apparently
decided that the Labour Party was best-placed to deal with the miners.
The 1980s witnessed a further contraction of coal's market and calls for a
reduction in its government subsidy. With the appointment of Ian MacGregor as
chairman of the NCB, a series of pit closures was announced. What began as a
strike by Yorkshire miners shortly became, under the leadership of the NUM's
Arthur Scargill, a national strike. The strike was one of the most bitter,
divisive and violent in Britain's history. The prime minister, Margaret
Thatcher, referred to the miners as the, 'enemy within', while Scargill referred
to her government's actions as, 'something reminiscent of a Latin American
state'. The strike failed and pits closed. Mining communities, once noted for
their exceptionally strong social and cultural identities, were reduced to ghost
towns. Mine heaps were landscaped and collieries dismantled or turned into
heritage sites. The NCB was renamed British Coal, privatised, and taken over by
UK Coal. The announcement of further pit closures in the early 1990s was met
with a relatively muted response from a now emasculated NUM. King Coal was
reduced to a handful of mines, 4,000 employees and an annual turnover of £340
million by 2005 (compared to £4,930 million in 1982).
Simon Baker
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