The first Ayrshire Miners' Union was founded in 1880, with Keir Hardie as its organiser.
The union supported a strike for higher wages over the winter of 1881/82, but this was unsuccessful, and the union dissolved.
[1] A new union was founded in 1886, with its Hardie elected as its first secretary.
[3] It was a founder of the Scottish Miners' Federation (SMF) in 1894, and by 1897 it claimed 3,000 members out of a total workforce of 10,000 in the county, making it the third-largest component of the federation.
[2] In 1944, the SMF became the unitary National Union of Scottish Mineworkers, and the union became its Ayrshire District, with less autonomy than before.