The Cumberland Miners' Association was a
trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
The union was founded in 1872 as the West Cumberland Miners' Association, with its aims being the establishment of an
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 of working time.
The modern movement originated i ...
, and improved safety. In 1906, it removed "West" from its name. Never a large organisation, in 1910 it had 6,326 members, based in
Whitehaven
Whitehaven is a town and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is a port on the north-west coast, and lies outside the Lake District National parks of England and Wales, National Park. ...
and
Workington
Workington is a coastal town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast, south-west of Carlisle and north-east of Whitehaven. At the 2021 census the ...
. Its executive became dominated by 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 Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...
, and it thereby came to have considerable influence in elections in the county, with most
Labour Party candidates being union members.
In its early years, the union was a member of the
Amalgamated Association of Miners
The Amalgamated Association of Miners (AAM) was formed in 1869 in Lancashire, at a time of increasing industrial conflict in the British coalfields.
History
The union was founded by Thomas Halliday and William Pickard, two miners' union agents wh ...
; it later 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 ...
.
In 1945, the CMA became the Cumberland Area of the
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), with less autonomy than before. By the 1970s, it was the smallest area of the union, By the end of the
miners' strike in 1985, its area contained only one pit and around 150 members.
[Martin Adeney and John Lloyd, ''The Miner's Strike 1984-85'', p.268] Later in the decade, it merged with the
Lancashire Area of the NUM to form the North West Area.
General Secretaries
:1872:
Andrew Sharp
:1916:
Thomas Cape
:c. 1939:
Tom Stephenson
:1960: Maurice Rowe
:c. 1975: Harry Hanlon
:c. 1980: W. S. Proud
See also
*
Cumberland Iron Ore Miners' and Kindred Trades' Association
References
{{National Union of Mineworkers (UK)
Mining trade unions
National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain)
Politics of Cumbria
1872 establishments in England
Mining in Cumbria
Trade unions established in 1872
Trade unions based in Cumbria