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

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

General Secretaries

See also

References