Arthur Scargill Biography

Leads picketing that helps force closure of Saltley Coke Depot in Birmingham.

Appointed President of the NUM

The NUM Delegate Conference votes for an overtime ban

The NUM bans overtime

The NCB announce closure of Cortonwood in Yorkshire sparking off the Miners Strike

Miners strike in South Yorkshire and some Scottish pits

The National Coal Board announces plans to cut coal output by 4 million tons to stem annual loss of $340 million a year. National Union of Mineworkers say this will mean closing 20 pits and loss of 20,000 jobs

The NUM executive backs nationwide strikes

The NUM National Executive supports Yorkshire & Scotland without a national ballot

Durham and Kent coalfields join the strike

National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) chief Arthur Scargill unites various strikes into nationwide industrial action, without a ballot

The beginning of the Miners Strike, during the 1st day 100 pits are closed down

The Midlands, Northeast and Northwest miners vote against strike

Some 8,000 police guard mines roadblocks across Midlands in the biggest police operation in a labor dispute since the 1926 general strike

The NUM Special Delegate Conference votes to reduce the majority needed for a strike

Scargill vetoes a national ballot on the miners strike

Rival groups of miners throw stones and hurl bricks at each other when 5,000 working miners stage a right-to-work march

Negotiations begin with the NCB, Scargill says only exhausted pits should close

Scargill arrested on Orgreave picket line

Scargill arrested on Orgreave picket line

10,000 miners march through London to Parliament. Police arrest 110. Opposition Labor Party accuses Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives of intervening directly to defeat miners. Government affirms it will not interfere in any Coal Board settlement with miners

The battle of Orgreave, 5,000 riot police took on 5,000 protestors, who pelted officers with bricks and stones

Scargill knocked unconscious in Orgreave violence. Police deny he was hit by a truncheon

Steel union leaders reject call for steel strike as 'completely unacceptable.'

South Wales miners assets seized and fined $55,000 for contempt of court over picketing

Miners & police clash at Kellingley

Miners & police clash at Maltby

A Judge rules that the miners strike is illegal

Union fined $200,000 for contempt of court

Pit supervisors vote to strike

Pit supervisors call off their strike

The High Court orders seizure of union funds

The Sunday Times discloses the miners asked Libya for money

A growing number of miners decide to return to work as Christmas looms

Union funds of $3 million seized in Dublin

1,200 miners go back to work

Special union conference votes to fight on

A court fines Scargill for obstruction

Nottinghamshire miners vote to defy union rules

Union votes to expel Nottinghamshire

Miners reject peace plan by trades unionleaders and Government

More than 50 perent of miners back at work

Delegates at an NUM conference decide 98 to 91 to end the strike

The year long miners strike is called off