National Union of Mineworkers
The National Union of Mineworkers ( NUM ) is a UK trade union . The union emerged in 1945 from a reorganization of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain ( MFGB ). It was led by Arthur Scargill for 20 years before Ian Lavery took over in 2002. Scargill was then honorary chairman. Mining in Great Britain (as in the Federal Republic of Germany, for example) has long been making great losses and could only continue to be operated with the help of state subsidies. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher managed during her tenure (May 1979 to November 1990) that mining in Great Britain was almost completely stopped. Since then, the NUM has been almost politically meaningless.
The individual miners' unions that formed the federation were the largest and most powerful unions in Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and exerted a significant influence on the union movement in the country. Among other things, they represented the goal of running their own trade union candidates for general election, and in 1874 they won the first seats in the lower house for members of the working class .
Labor disputes
In the British miners' strike in 1984/1985 , the NUM was unable to prevail against Thatcher or its policies. The rest of the British unions also realized that they could not.
Important industrial disputes in the history of the union were:
- National Miners' Strike, 1912
- Strikes in South Wales , 1915
- Black Friday , 1921
- Red Friday , 1925
- General strike, 1926
- Miners strike in 1973; it led to the resignation of Prime Minister Edward Heath (=> British general election February 1974 )
- Miners strike 1984/1985 ; its unsuccessful end is considered a crushing defeat
President
- 1889: Ben Pickard
- 1904: Enoch Edwards
- 1912: Robert Smillie
- 1922: Herbert Smith
- 1929:
- 1931: Ebby Edwards
- 1932:
- 1938: Joseph Jones
- 1939: Will Lawther
- 1954: Ernest Jones
- 1960: Sidney Ford
- 1971: Joe Gormley
- 1982: Arthur Scargill (Honorary President since 2002, excluded in 2010 due to political differences)
- 2002: Ian Lavery
Vice President
- 1889: Sam Woods
- 1909: Robert Smillie
- 1912:
- 1917: Herbert Smith
- 1922: Stephen Walsh
- 1924:
- 1929: Ebby Edwards
- 1930:
- 1933: SO Davies
- 1934: Will Lawther
- 1939: Jim Bowman
- 1950: Ernest Jones ?
- 1972: Mick McGahey
- 1987: Sammy Thompson
- 1989: vacant
- 1992: Frank Cave
- 2002: Keith Stanley
General Secretaries
- 1889: Thomas Ashton
- 1919: Frank Hodges
- 1924: AJ Cook
- 1932: Ebby Edwards
- 1946: Arthur Horner
- 1959: Will Paynter
- 1968: Lawrence Daly
- 1984: Peter Heathfield
- 1992:
- 2002: Steve Kemp
Web links
- Official website of the NUM. (English)