Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.5.10
Object Name
letter
Place
Wigan, Lancashire, England, UK
People
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), National Coal Board, Ian MacGregor
Events
1984-85 Miners' Strike
Description
This is a typed letter from the National Coal Board (NCB) chairman Ian MacGregor to striker Lenny Jones, dated June 1984. The letter addresses National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members urging them to end the strike, arguing that it will not succeed however long it lasts, and laying out the NCB's perspective on the future of the industry.
While the public's main view of a strike is that of picket lines and news reporting, internal organisation letters like this give important insight into the ways mines and unions worked behind the scenes to strengthen strikers resolve, or in the case of the employers and strikebreakers, attempt to undermine it entirely. In this case, the NCB argues that the loss of twenty thousand jobs at "uneconomic" pits will protect the industry.
The letter also raises the concern that "mines which are not constantly maintained and worked deteriorate in terms of safety and workability" claiming that 20-30 viable pits may not be safe to reopen if the strike does not end, effectively urging workers to join strike breakers and return to work to protect their long term job security. Crossing picket lines or 'scabbing' on a strike is viewed as a serious betrayal by striking workers, with serious social consequences - oral histories from the Strike discuss mining families where people who crossed picket lines were shunned for life.
The 1984-85 Miners' Strike was called after the government announced plans to close 20 pits, at a cost of twenty thousand miners jobs, which the miners accurately saw as the beginning of the closure of all the pits in the UK. The strike lasted for over a year before ending unsuccessfully in March 1985. While the letter claims that it is "absolutely untrue" that the government planned to ultimately close 85 pits, the NUM's speculation was correct, and a second round of closures in 1992 was announced, closing almost all the mines in the UK, leaving former pit towns with extremely high rates of unemployment and deprivation that last to this day.
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