Miners’ dispute left the UK in darkness
The middle of February is never a good time to be without power.
But it was on February 16, 1972, that the Central Electricity Generating Board announced that many homes and businesses would have to go without electricity for up to nine hours a day.
With the miners’ strike in its sixth week as they battled for higher wages, power stations were being picketed and other fuel supply sources were also feeling the pressure.
As was the Government, even more so once the public realised what it would really mean.
The reality was that power would be switched off on a rota basis between 7am and midnight each day, and the shortage of electricity was forcing more factories and businesses to close, too.
Prime Minister Ted Heath’s Government had imposed a three-day week and it was reported that 1.2 million workers had been laid off.
Imperial Chemical Industries had given its 60,000 staff a week’s notice.
Gas works were within a week of having no power supplies, and the miners had walked out on January 9, their first national dispute in half a century.
On top of their average wage of £25 they wanted another £9 a week, and the Government had offered a 7.9% deal, which was just below its pay ceiling.
The National Union of
Mineworkers refused to put it to a vote, and the National Coal Board withdrew the offer. February 9 saw a state of emergency declared, and Lord Wilberforce headed an inquiry to look at the miners’ demands.
With all 289 English and Welsh pits closed, the miners made it clear they were ready for a long battle.
The deployment of flying pickets, who could be moved to industrial sites to convince other workers to follow them and strike, too, had an effect. Railway workers refused to move coal, while power station workers refused to handle coal.
Nevertheless, both Labour and the Conservatives praised the miners for their patience and restraint during the many pit closures of the previous decade.
When the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers didn’t go out on strike, there were confrontations with pickets.
The National Coal Board gave members leave on full pay if they had faced intimidation on their way into work.
On February 19, thankfully, a deal to resolve the dispute was finally agreed.
The miners reckoned they had got 15 concessions from the Government beyond what the inquiry had recommended, and they went back to work on February 25.
They were now the highest-paid among the working class after seven weeks’ stoppage, and Britain could warm up and put the lights on again.