A predecessor of the union was founded in 1874 as the National Amalgamated Society of Colliery Mechanics, but it quickly lost members and by the end of 1878 was nearly defunct.
The Durham Miners' Association saw it as a sectional, breakaway, group, and in its early years it was a conservative organisation, seeking to maintain the privileges of the mechanics as opposed to other colliery workers.
That year, it was a founding member of the National Federation of Colliery Mechanics' Associations, with other similar organisations in Northumberland and Scotland – in other areas of the country, mechanics remained part of the main miners' unions.
It sponsored him as a Labour Party candidate, and he sat as a Member of Parliament from 1906 until 1919.
Some members split away, forming an anti-strike Colliery Mechanics' Association which hoped to establish itself on a national basis, but the majority of members remained with the union.