Margaret Thatcher and the Coal Miner Union Strikes

Previously published in Examiner

Part 18 of the Margaret Thatcher series

This series will now look at the only female prime minister of England and the only female prime minister of Canada. The series will end with three male governors of Quebec, so important to Montreal men and women's history and the three female governor generals of Canada. Two of the three females came from Montreal.

To learn more about Canadian Prime Ministers and other Canadian or Quebec politics, both McGill University and Concordia University in Montreal offer wonderful political science degrees, that you may want to look into.

For further reading, Montreal's Concordia University has a wonderful women's studies program at the Simone do Beauvoir Institute

Margaret Thatcher Strong and powerful Icon for the Status of Women, in Britain, USA, Canada and Montreal, though her policies were not necessarily pro feminist.

Margaret Thatcher Brings Down The Powerful Coal Miners Union

The closing of the mines would put 20,000 miners out of work. Incredibly Thatcher showed no compassion for the miners and compared them to the Falkland war stating, "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty." Rather than working with the people, Margaret Thatcher had seen the trade unions bring down the Heath government and she was determined they would not bring down hers. She prepared herself by introducing fuel stock for the open market, appointed a ball-busting leader, Ian MacGregor, and trained and supplied the police with riot gear.

The minors strike lasted a year and the miners finally conceded without a deal in March of 1985. The miners' strike was blamed for the weakening of the pound set against the American dollar.

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher