Page 113 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

By March 12th Arthur Scargill, leader of the
National Union of Mineworkers called for strike
action by all NUM members across the
country. However, his action, imposed without
a ballot was illegal.

The NUM was divided over the action and
many mineworkers, especially in the Midlands,
worked through the dispute.

Few major trade unions supported the NUM,
primarily because of the absence of a vote at
national level. Violent confrontations between
flying pickets and police characterised the
year-long strike, which ended in a decisive
victory for the Conservative government and
allowed the closure of most of Britain's
collieries.
Figure 46 Arthur Scargill declares the NUM strike
action official in Sheffield - March 1984.

Timeline of the 1984-85 miners' strike

• March 12, 1984 - National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) chief Arthur Scargill
unites various strikes into nationwide industrial action, without a ballot.

• June 18 - The battle of Orgreave - 5,000 riot police took on 5,000 protestors,

who pelted officers with bricks and stones.
• September - Thousands of miners and police clash once more at Malty
Colliery near Rotherham. Protestors have been out of work for six months

and the lack of income was starting to take its toll.
• November - A growing number of miners decide to return to work as
Christmas looms. Violence on the picket lines becomes more widespread.

• March 3, 1985 - Delegates at an NUM conference decide 98 to 91 to end

the strike.

At its height, the strike involved 142,000 mineworkers. The number of days of
work lost to the strike was over 26,000,000, making it the largest since the 1926
general strike.

The main strike started on 6 March 1984 with a walkout at Cortonwood
Colliery, which led to the NUM's Yorkshire area's sanctioning of a strike on the
grounds of a ballot result from 1981 in the Yorkshire Area, which was later Page113
challenged in court. The union strategy was to cause a severe energy