ABSTRACT
From 1 November 1971 the NUM imposed a ban on overtime and between 9 January and 28 February 1972 the country experienced the first official national miners’ strike since 1926. In the coal industry over 10 500 000 working days were lost while in industry at large well over 1 500 000 workers worked short time with many others laid off. It was one of the declared policies of the NUM to win the strike by depriving the nation of its power supply. The resulting picketing at the power stations and elsewhere was on an unprecedented scale and ferocity and the Generating Board had the utmost difficulty in maintaining supply even at a much reduced level. The government introduced a State of Emergency on 9 February and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry ordered restrictions on the use of electricity through a system of rota disconnections operated primarily by the twelve area electricity boards.
