[3] During the 1960s employment in coal mining had fallen by almost 400,000 with little resistance from the NUM leadership, but the left wing of the union was becoming stronger and drawing strength from the students' protests.
[8][9] A group of housewives in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, refused to undertake any housework until their husbands returned to work.
[10] The Chairman of the NCB, former Labour MP Alf Robens, proposed to resolve the dispute by conceding the wage claim of 27 shillings and 6 pence (£1.375) per week.
[13] The Wilberforce Inquiry, which followed an official strike in 1972, concluded that the mineworkers in the late 1960s had been overworked and underpaid under the National Power Loading Agreement of the first Wilson government.
[14] The strike was seen by some as a turning point after which the NUM took a more militant approach, especially in the Yorkshire area, where many of the officials were voted out and replaced with left-wingers.
[3][6] In his study of the Yorkshire NUM, Andrew Taylor gives five reasons why the Yorkshire area aligned itself with the militant areas of Kent, Scotland and South Wales during the 1960s: The action led to discussions on the NUM's threshold of a two-thirds majority for a national strike.
[18] He nicknamed the strike "the October revolution" (referencing the Soviet historical event of the same name) and said in 1975, "'69 was responsible for producing all the victories that were to come".