Historical background

More than any other union, the finances of NUM have been subject to public scrutiny since the year long dispute with the National Coal Board in 1984–5. The dispute proved to have major consequences for the union because of the size of funds involved, the loss of almost all membership income for such a long period, the protracted nature of the litigation which the union faced, and the publicity shed by the Lightman Inquiry, set up by the NEC to investigate financial management in the union during the dispute (Lightman, 1990). As we shall see, the federal structure of NUM affected its capacity to respond to financial crisis even after the dispute was over. While the leadership of NUM has responded to this with a number of important reforms, it remains clear that even extreme financial pressures have not altered the industrial policies of the union.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) came into being in 1945, following the effective wartime nationalisation of coal production in 1942. It was formed out of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, set up in 1888 and comprising some 40 separate local organisations. NUM is often regarded as an industrial union and, to the extent that its members are confined to coal and coke production, it is, but it shares the industry with three other unions. The British Association of Colliery Management (BACM), which came into existence in 1947, represents all those engaged in professional, technical, and managerial grades in the mining industry or associated industries and the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers (NACODS) organises those who have statutory qualifications as colliery deputies.