The Coal Miners Strikes

This half-term we are going to be journeying back to the 1970s. 

We are going to be learning all about the 1972 coal miners strikes which affected our local area.

We will have the opportunity to discover:

Why people decide to go on strike.

The history of coal mining in the United Kingdom.

What happened at the Battle of Saltley Gate?

How coal miners would have felt during this era.

See below to follow our history learning journey!

Lesson 1 - WALT: explore reasons people go on strike using research 

During today's learning, we were introduced to the concept of striking!

Did you know?

A strike is when a group of workers come together and agree to stop working.

Employees do this when they want to protest against something they think is unfair where they work.

Strikes often happen because workers want those in charge to listen to what they want.

Employees hope that by stopping working, the people who make decisions about issues that affect them - such as pay or working hours - will listen to their demands.

As a class, we had to think of a variety of reasons why workers may choose to go on strike using a range of secondary sources.

We decided that people might go on strike if:

1. They feel unsafe at work.
2. They are not being paid fairly.
3. They are being treated poorly.
4. They are forced to work for long hours. 
5. They feel undervalued by their employers or 
6. To stop their wages from going down.

We then had to explain why workers might find it necessary to strike by writing our ideas down onto our own picket signs. 

​​​​​​​Take a look below at some of our work.