National Federation of Colliery Officials

Former trade union of the United Kingdom

National Federation of Colliery OfficialsFounded| December 1919

|

Headquarters| 58 Station Road, Sutton in Ashfield
Location|

* United Kingdom

Members

| 18,980 (1979)
24 (2017)

Key people

| Sidney Ford (Gen Sec)

Parent organization

| National Union of Mineworkers (from 1947)
Website| num.org.uk/cosa

The National Federation of Colliery Officials was a trade union representing colliery workers in the United Kingdom who were not involved in manual labour.

The federation was established in December 1919 by local unions of colliery officials, with the most important being the Northern Colliery Officials' Mutual Association, founded in 1914, and the Lancashire and Cheshire Colliery Officials' Association.[1] It soon had six smaller affiliates, including Consett, the Forest of Dean Colliery Examiners', Overmen, and Shot Firers' Association, the Midland Mining Officials' Association, the Somerset Colliery Officials' Association, and Yorkshire.[2]

The federation received recognition from colliery owners in 1920, and quickly negotiated a national agreement on pay and conditions for colliery officials and clerks.[1] By 1936, the membership of the federation was described as "surveyors, under-managers, overmen, master wastemen, electricians and engineers, surface foremen, screening plant foremen, and clerks". About three-quarters of its members were based in Durham and Northumberland, with the third-largest district being Lancashire, which housed its office, in Bolton.[3]

By the 1940s, the federation was known as the National Federation of Colliery Officials and Staffs, reflecting its broader membership, and in 1945 it affiliated to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), with a membership of 8,183, of whom 120 were women.[2]

When the mining industry was nationalised, in 1947, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) sought to unite all workers in the industry. Members of the federation voted heavily in favour of joining the NUM, and did so on 1 January 1947, becoming the Colliery Officials and Staffs Area (COSA). Two smaller, independent unions of colliery officials voted against joining the NUM. The TUC brokered a deal whereby national level clerical staff would transfer to the Clerical and Administrative Workers' Union, and divisional level clerical staff to the Transport and General Workers' Union, and this satisfied the smaller unions so that they dissolved, dividing their members between the new NUM section and the two other unions.[4]

As employment in the mining industry declined, COSA became an increasingly important section of the NUM; by 1979, it had 18,980 members out of a total NUM membership of around 250,000.[5] The section survives, and as of 2017, had 24 members.[6]

## General Secretaries

[edit]

1919: Thomas Halstead
c.1940: James Shearer
1951: Sidney Ford
1960: Cliff Shephard
1970s: Les Storey
1979: Trevor Bell
1989: Ken Hollingsworth

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Thomas Halstead". Bolton's Mayors. Bolton Metropolitan District Council. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
2. ^ a b Smethurst, John B.; Carter, Peter (June 2009). Historical Directory of Trade Unions. Vol. 6\. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 532–536. ISBN 9780754666837. LCCN 80-151653.
3. ^ "Safety in coal mines: colliery officials' views". The Science & Art of Mining. 19 December 1936. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
4. ^ "Colliery Officials and Staff Area (N.U.M Clerical Section)". Archives Hub. Jisc. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
5. ^ Allen, V. L. (1981). The Militancy of British Miners. Shipley: The Moor Press. p. 268\. ISBN 0907698018.
6. ^ "Annual Return for a Trade Union: National Union of Mineworkers (Colliery Officials and Staffs Area): 2017" (PDF). Trade Union Certification Officer. UK Government. Retrieved 21 March 2019.

* v
* t
* e

Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)

Presidents|

* 1889 Pickard
* 1904 En. Edwards
* 1912 Smillie
* 1922 Smith
* 1929 Richards
* 1931 Eb. Edwards
* 1932 Lee
* 1934 J. Jones
* 1939 Lawther
* 1954 E. Jones
* 1960 Machen
* 1960 Ford
* 1971 Gormley
* 1982 Scargill
* 2002 Lavery
* 2012 Wilson

Vice-Presidents|

* 1889 Woods
* 1909 Smillie
* 1912 Harvey
* 1914 House
* 1917 Smith
* 1922 Walsh
* 1924 Richards
* 1929 Eb. Edwards
* 1931 Lee
* 1932 J. Jones
* 1933 Davies
* 1934 Lawther
* 1939 Bowman
* 1950 E. Jones
* 1954 T. Jones
* 1961 Collindridge
* 1963 Bullough
* 1969 Schofield
* 1973 McGahey
* 1987 Thompson
* 1989 Vacant
* 1992 Cave
* 2002 Stanley
* 2010 Wilson
* 2012 Thomas

General Secretaries|

* 1889 Ashton
* 1919 Hodges
* 1924 Cook
* 1932 Eb. Edwards
* 1946 Horner
* 1959 Paynter
* 1968 Daly
* 1984 Heathfield
* 1992 Scargill
* 1992 Vacant?
* 2002 Kemp
* 2007 Kitchen

Treasurers|

* 1889 En. Edwards
* 1904 Abraham
* 1918 Robson
* 1921 Richardson

Affiliates and areas|

* Bristol
* Cleveland
* Cokemen
* Colliery Officials and Staffs
* Cumberland
* Derbyshire
* Durham
* Forest of Dean
* Kent
* Lancashire and Cheshire
* Leicestershire
* Midland Counties (Cannock Chase
* North Staffordshire
* Old Hill
* Pelsall
* Shropshire
* Warwickshire
* West Bromwich)
* Northumberland
* North Wales
* Nottinghamshire
* Scotland (Ayrshire
* Fife and Kinross
* Lanarkshire
* Mid and East Lothian
* Mid and West Lothian
* Stirling)
* Somerset
* South Derbyshire
* South Wales
* Yorkshire

Strikes|

* 1893
* 1912
* 1926
* 1969
* 1972
* 1974
* 1984–1985

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