ABSTRACT
The strike had already done its work in the national sense and the movement for dealing with the abnormal places question by national action was now fairly well under way. When the special conference of the Federation assembled in Birmingham, on 18 January, it was reported that 445,801 members had voted for the strike and 115,921 against. When the last strike notices expired on 2 March there were over a million men out. There was a certain amount of coal picking on pit banks with the permission of colliery managers but it did not assume the proportions of the 'outcropping' during subsequent strikes and there was no disorder. Strike payments presented no difficulty to the Derbyshire Miners Association but those who had allowed their membership to lapse, non-unionists and men thrown out of work because of the shortage of coal, were all in a difficult position.
