The miners’ strike

LAST UPDATED AT 13:50 ON Tue 10 Mar 2009

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visits Selby in March 1980. The Selby mines in North Yorkshire were part of the biggest mining complex in the UK, employing about 2,000 people and producing around 6m tonnes of coal every year. As this trip was being made, the Riccall, Stillingfleet and Wistow pits at Selby were about to be closed, which would lead to a further 3,000 redundancies in related industries.

Jack Collins, Secretary of the Kent division of the National Union of Mineworkers, addresses a picket in Tilmanstone Colliery near Dover in 1984 during the year long industrial action. Under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Tories intended to close down loss-making mines and mechanise others. Miners opposed the measures, which would result in mass redundancy and a weakened union.