National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain)
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is a British trade union. The union was 1945 from a reorganization of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain ( MFGB ) out. It was for 20 years led by Arthur Scargill, before Ian Lavery 2002 took the lead. Scargill was then honorary chairman. Mining continued in the UK (as well as eg in Germany ) has long been a great loss and could only be operated by means of state subsidies on. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher caused during her tenure ( May 1979-November 1990 ) that the mining industry in the UK was almost completely set. Since then, the NUM is politically almost meaningless.
The individual miners' unions, which were united in the Federation, were in the late 19th and early 20th century, the largest and most powerful unions of Great Britain and exerted a considerable influence on the trade union movement in the country. Among other things, they represented the goal to establish their own trade union candidates to the House of Commons elections and obtained as 1874, the first seats in the House for members of the working class.
Labor disputes
In the British miners' strike of 1984/1985, the NUM could not prevail against Thatcher and her politics. The other British unions recognized then that they could not actually.
Major labor disputes in the history of the trade 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 in February 1974 )
- Miners' strike in 1984/1985; be inconclusive end is considered to be a crushing defeat