Think of the words Coal miner and it evokes images of men in donkey jackets, orange overalls, soot covered faces, the picket lines of the early 80’s and a strike that lasted 52 weeks. This was the strike to end all strikes, the right to work and earn a decent wage and the strike that Margaret Thatcher was not going to lose, no matter what.

It was a defining moment in British history, the defeat of the working class and the weakening of the British trade unions.
Television dramas and a film depict the reality and harshness for the mining communities and the shame associated with crossing the picket line. It inspired many musical artists such as Pulp, Manic Street Preachers and Ewan MacColl. Billy Bragg’s version of “Which side are you on” and MacColl‘s “Daddy what did you do in the strike?" demonstrate the division between those that went on strike and those that chose to work.

Working during the strike was not an easy decision to make, to be labeled a scab was no small insult. Whole families were terrorised and threatened as the bitterness of the strike divided villages. Men were torn between their loyalty to colleagues and family, and their decision to return to work.
Community cohesion was high throughout the strike; the wives of colliery workers fundraised with jumble sales, sponsored walks, turning up at rallies, marching behind banners and even standing on picket lines alongside their men. Soup kitchen’s opened and food parcels were handed out; in West Bromwich Birmingham, Sikh’s opened their doors to feed the Strikers. Whilst all of this helped, the strain was still too much and men started returning to work. Once you returned to the mines there was no going back; it required traveling to work in a police convoy to get across the line safely whilst watching former friends and family throw bricks at the vehicle. Having ‘scab’ shouted at you in the street and ignored by so- called friends.

The end of the strike and a return to work didn’t see an end to these disputes, wounds ran too deep and some have never healed. Men have lost fathers, brothers and friends divided over the strike with the betrayal the strikers felt against those that worked or returned early.
My own father is still labeled a scab in the Yorkshire village I was born in after he returned to work 3 days early. The father of a Nottinghamshire miner never spoke to his son again and has since died without ever reconciling for defying the Strike and crossing the picket line.
Some coal miners where relocated to different pits, many of the Yorkshire workers who had returned early had to be transferred to Nottingham collieries for safety where the pits had stayed open throughout strike.