The Miners' Strike and Decline of Heavy Industry

• In the event, Thatcher was fortunate that her enemy: NUM President Arthur Scargill made several tactical errors that undermined the miners' strike
• The strike began on the 6th of March 1984, just as the UL emerged from winter and demanded less energy
• Scargill did not ballot NUK members about strike action, choosing instead to launch the strike with 'flying pickets'. this caused miners in Nottinghamshire to leave the NUM and set up their own union, which voted to keep the mines open
• Lastly, Scargill lost public sympathy due tot what were seen as probative methods: his public disapproval rating never fell below 79% throughout the year-long strike
• The strike was finally defeated on 3rd of March 1985, almost a year to the day after it began, although miners in Kent held out for a further two weeks
• Unions became far more willing to work with government legislation following the defeat of the NUM
• The total number of trade union members fell from 13.5 million in 1979 to under 10 million in 1990
• The total number of working days lost to strike action fell from 10.5 million in 1980-84 to 0.8 million in 1990-94
• The coal industry had become increasingly uncompetitive since the war and pit closures had led to large-scale redundancies since the 1960's
• It is likely that the coal industry would have been scaled back at a slower pace had it not been for the strike
• After the bitter struggle with the miners, a series of Employment Acts in 1998, 1989 and 1990 weakened trade unions further
• After Thatcher's resignation in 1990, trade union membership fell again to 6.7 million in 1997
• The removal of government subsidies for struggling older industries also saw a decline in the percentage of the labour force employed in manual labour from 47% in 1974 to 36% in 1991
• The number of miners fell from 200.000 to 10,000 from 1974-1991
• Many local communities were greatly affected by the end of the major local industry, such as shipbuilding in Sunderland, the steel manufacturing in Sheffield
• The impact of Thatcher's anti-union legislation and action is a source of emotional disagreement
• Critics argue that she caused unnecessary suffering to whole communities who relied on mining and other industries and that not enough was done to encourage other forms of employment in former mining areas