Battle of Saltley Gate
The Battle of Saltley Gate is the name given to a confrontation between police, picketing miners and local factory workers at the West Midlands Gas Board coking works in Saltley, Birmingham, during the 1972 UK miners' strike.
Battle
The Saltley coke works had remained open despite the strike. Initially the police had managed to keep them open during the previous week of picketing by 2,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) who were brought to Birmingham to try to close the works. However, Scargill decided to ask local unions to come to help shut down the works and on 10 February 1972 about 10,000 members of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW) marched from local factories and joined the picket. The police could not cope with such large numbers and the coke works were closed.[1]
Aftermath
This closure led to the government implementing the three-day week.
Popular Culture
The events are portrayed from the point of view of an AUEW member in Birmingham in the song Saltley Gates by Banner Theatre.