The Fife and Kinross Miners' Association was a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use c ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

based in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

and

Kinross-shire The County of Kinross or Kinross-shire is a historic county and registration county in eastern Scotland, administered as part of Perth and Kinross since 1930. Surrounding its largest settlement and county town of Kinross, the county borders Per ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

History

The union was founded in 1869 or 1870, and proved immediately successful by achieving the

eight-hour day The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 16 ...

for miners in the counties, and was the first union to be recognised by Scottish mine owners. In 1877, employers organised a

lockout Lockout may refer to: * Lockout (industry), a type of work stoppage **Dublin Lockout, a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers 1913 - 1914 * Lockout (sports), lockout in sports leagues **MLB lockout, lock ...

, targeting the union, but alone out of Scottish coal miners' unions, it survived. The union was a strong supporter of the 1892 UK miners' strike, even publishing a list of

strikebreaker A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...

s in the county. In 1894, the association became a founder member of the

Scottish Miners Federation The National Union of Scottish Mineworkers (NUSW) is a trade union in Scotland, founded in 1894 as the Scottish Miners Federation. It joined the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, and in 1914 changed its name to National Union of Scottish Minew ...

, which in turn affiliated to the

Miners' Federation of Great Britain The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in Engla ...

(MFGB). By 1907, it had 15,500 members. In 1922, the FKMA merged with the Clackmannan Miners' Association, forming the ''Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan Miners' Association'' (FKCMA).Arthur Ivor Marsh and Victoria Ryan, ''Historical Directory of Trade Unions'', vol.6, p.492 The new union suffered several splits. The

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

-aligned Miners' Reform Union of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan left almost immediately, led by Philip Hodge.Adamson,_William_[Willie
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, following which

William Adamson William Adamson (2 April 1863 – 23 February 1936) was a Scottish trade unionist and Labour politician. He was Leader of the Labour Party from 1917 to 1921 and served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1924 and during 1929–1931 in the f ...

was persuaded that it should be permitted to merge back into the FKCMA. However, Hodge was elected General Secretary in 1928, and Adamson left to found the right-wing ''Fife, Clackmannan, and Kinross Miners' Union'', which subsequently was recognised as the official union by the

National Union of Scottish Mineworkers The National Union of Scottish Mineworkers (NUSW) is a trade union in Scotland, founded in 1894 as the Scottish Miners Federation. It joined the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, and in 1914 changed its name to National Union of Scottish Minew ...

and

. The rump union soon disappeared, with supporters of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

forming the United Mineworkers of Scotland, and those in favour of a non-political union forming the "Fife, Kinross and District Industrial Trade Union". The United Mineworkers was the more successful, with its membership peaking at roughly half of the FCKMU.L. J. Macfarlane, ''The British Communist Party: Its Origin and Development Until 1929'', p.265 In 1944, the MFGB became the National Union of Mineworkers, and the FKCMA became its Fife Area, with less independence than before. It was later merged with the Stirlingshire Area to become the "Fife, Clackmannan and Stirlingshire Area".

General Secretaries

Original union

:1869: Henry Cook :1881: John Weir :1908:

:1917: James Cook :1928: Philip Hodge

Adamson union

:1928:

:1936: James Cook :1944: James Potter :1946: John McArthur :1956:

Bill McLean William Malcolm McLean (28 February 1918 – 9 December 1996) was an Australian soldier and a state and national representative rugby union player who captained the Wallabies in five Test matches immediately after World War II. Pre-war rug ...

:1963:

Lawrence Daly Lawrence Daly (20 October 1924 – 23 May 2009) was a coal miner, trade unionist and political activist. Born in Fife as one of nine children, Daly's father Jimmy was a miner and a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), ...

:1965:

References

{{National Union of Mineworkers (UK) Mining trade unions National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) 1869 establishments in Scotland Mining in Scotland Defunct trade unions of Scotland Trade unions established in 1869