Sheffield Telegraph February 27, 1912

Strike will Affect 50,000 People To-Morrow.

Most of the notices in the Mexboro’ district expire to-morrow.

In the neighbourhood there are some well-equipped collieries, including Denaby and Cadeby, Manvers Main, Wath Main and Hickleton Main, giving employment to something like 15,000 workers, so that, with their dependants, something like 50,000 people are directly effected locally, to say nothing of the outside public.

At Denaby and New conisboro’ the colliery companies own about 1,800 houses, but the mining tenants have not been given notice to quit ; indeed, the  whole district is very calm, and there is nothing to suggest the coming of a great industrial war.

On all hands the opinion is general that the strike will not last long, it being anticipated that the intervention of the Government failing an agreement between the coal owners and the miners’ leaders will mean the application of such drastic measures that the dispute will be compulsorily settled.

From Wikipedia:

National coal strike of 1912

The national coal strike of 1912 was the first national strike by coal miners in the United Kingdom. Its main goal was securing a minimum wage. After 37 days, the government intervened and ended the strike by passing the Coal Mines Act, establishing a minimum wage for the first time.[1]

The dispute centred upon an attempt by the Miners Federation of Great Britain, the main trade union representing coal miners, to secure a minimum wage for miners in their district and replace the complicated wage structure then in place which often made it difficult for a miner to earn a fair day’s wage. The same issues had caused a major dispute the previous year in South Wales and had become a national issue. The strike was a repeat of the unsuccessful strike of 1894 which also sought a minimum wage.

The strike began at the end of February in Alfreton, Derbyshire and spread nationwide. Nearly one million miners took part. It ended on 6 April after 37 days. The strike caused considerable disruption to train and shipping schedules.