ABSTRACT
On 1 January 1947, the UK coal industry was taken into public ownership by the Labour government returned by the first post war election. Collective bargaining had been in evidence within the industry long before the advent of public ownership, with negotiations being largely conducted on a district basis, since the miners' union was then comprised of a number of autonomous local organisations, loosely combined within the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (Ashworth, 1986). However, industrial relations took on a more formal and institutionalised character in the era of nationalisation.
