The largest and most powerful union was the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
In 1972 the NUM demanded a 43% pay raise for its members. The resulting strike action brought the country to its knees and eventually, after further pay demands and a further strike in 1974, was instrumental in the downfall of the Conservative government under Ted Heath. For a time miners were amongst the highest paid in the working class.
This is pretty much as it was when I became Nottinghamshire miner’s wife. Mining was seen as a secure, well paid job for life, protected by a union that had the power to shake the economy into submission and bring down a government. Ironically, under Ted Heath the UK had become part of the EEC and my first mortgage in 1979 was heavily subsided by the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). Life in the industry was relatively good and when the men weren’t working, we were down the Miners Welfare heckling the ‘turn’ (the aspiring artists who toured the pubs and clubs, some of whom went on to become TV stars. A lot of them didn’t; we were a very tough audience and viewed it as a kind of sport. When an artist floundered under the pressure and was reduced to pleading angrily, ‘I’d like to see you come up here and do this,’ we knew we had won and cheered as the compere guided them off stage before the heckling got out of hand)