Revisiting The Three Day Week Of 1974
Posted onApril 17, 2023 ByChris Owens19 Commentson Revisiting The Three Day Week Of 1974
Power Insights
The start of 1974 saw much of UK industry operate under a Three Day Week restricting their electricity use.
The period of electricity rationing lasted for more than two months and played a pivotal role in unseating the British government.
While the crisis came to a head thanks to an industrial dispute with coal miners in the midst of a global oil crisis, its true origins date back years or even decades.
In fact, electricity use was rationed just two years before due to fears about potential shortages of coal.
The Background: Major Miners’ Disputes
Before World War II, coal mining languished in 84th place on a league table of the best-paid industrial jobs. But a post-war boom saw this situation change dramatically.
One report found the net income of a miner with a wife and two children in 1957 was roughly 22% higher than an equivalent manufacturing worker. A similar 1960 study revealed
miners were paid 7.4% above the average earnings of those working in factories.
Coal was the new gold and it was claimed miners were “enjoying historically unprecedented standards of living”.
This situation didn’t last though. Miners’ pay fell behind other workers during the 1960s and by the end of the decade, earnings were roughly 3% below the average worker in manufacturing.
As Britain headed into the 1970s, high inflation led the Conservative government of the day to impose wage restraint on public sector workers. This sent them headlong into a lengthy and acrimonious dispute with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
At its 1971 annual conference, the trade union proposed a 43% pay rise for its members. At the time, the government was offering workers 7-8% increases. Miners voted to take industrial action if their demands weren’t met.
On 5 January 1972, the NUM’s executive committee rejected another offer from the National Coal Board, the state-owned body running the mining industry.
This led to a worker walkout on 9 January, the first official strike by miners in Britain since 1926. There had been a widespread unofficial strike in 1969.
Miners picketed at coal-fired power stations, before targeting all other major coal users including steelworks and ports to ramp up pressure on the government.
With fuel supplies dwindling, the government declared a state of emergency on 9 February. This included
limiting electricity to homes and businesses through rota disconnections, leaving many without power for up to nine hours a day.
Inevitably, this caused great disruption to industry, even forcing some companies out of business. In the two days following the introduction of emergency measures, more than 1.5 million people paid weekly were laid off, doubling the number of unemployed in a matter of hours.
The Central Electricity Generating Board, which oversaw power generation across England and Wales from 1957 until privatisation in the 1990s, had to disconnect 10-15% of the population as well as reduce voltage by 6%.
On 11 February an inquiry headed by Lord Wilberforce (the Wilberforce Inquiry) started to investigate the coal miners’ demands as the strike stretched into its second month.
Negotiations between the NUM and the coal board continued and an agreement was finally reached in the early hours of 19 February.
Miners accepted the new offer in a vote on 25 February and returned to work three days later, ending a seven-week strike that demonstrated how important coal and electricity were to the nation’s economic wellbeing.
DIGGING IN: Disputes between miners and the government were common at the time
Crisis Averted… But For How Long?
Conflict was brewing again by the middle of 1973. The election of Mick McGahey to vice-president had moved the NUM in a more militant direction.
By October inflation was spiralling, resulting in miners’ real-terms wages lagging 2.3% behind the recommendations of the Wilberforce Inquiry.
The NUM’s national conference passed resolutions for 35% wage increases, again well above the limits set by the government.
Around the same time,
a global oil crisis was developing. The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries enforced a boycott of the United States and an embargo on oil supplies to nations perceived as supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
Compared to other countries such as the Netherlands, Britain wasn’t hugely affected by the embargo. The Edward Heath-led Conservative government refused permission for the US air force to use its military bases.
This stance meant oil supplies to the UK were largely uninterrupted, although the spiralling prices undoubtedly had a knock on effect on the relationship between ministers and the miners. By the end of the embargo in March 1974, the average price of oil had risen nearly 400% from $3 to $12 a barrel.
Come November, the NUM rejected the latest pay offer from the National Coal Board and held a national ballot on another strike. Miners rejected the proposal by almost a 2-to-1 margin (143,006 to 82,631). However, they did enforce an overtime ban aimed at halving coal production.
This move had serious consequences for the UK’s power supplies, with the majority of electricity at the time generated by coal-fired power stations.
On 13 December 1973, Prime Minister Heath announced that from midnight on 31 December, commercial consumption of electricity would be limited to three consecutive days each week.
The measure aimed to prolong the life of available coal stocks rather than risk a complete shutdown of the nation’s power supplies.
