South Yorkshire Miners' Association
The South Yorkshire Miners' Association (SYMA) was an early British trade union representing coal miners in the southern West Riding of Yorkshire and northern Derbyshire.
The union was founded in 1858. Initially successful, it declined in membership from 1861. In 1864, miners were locked out for nineteen weeks; following this, membership declined to under 2,000. The SYMA was reorganised, and John Normansell was elected as its new secretary; with his assistant Philip Casey, they rebuilt membership to over 20,000, and began running annual South Yorkshire Miners' Galas. The SYMA affiliated to the Miners' National Union and, though it, took an active part in the Trades Union Congress.[1]
Normansell died in 1875 and was replaced by John Frith. He invested much of the SYMA's capital in the Shirland Colliery, but lost this when the pit went into liquidation in 1877. Soon after, most of its members in Derbyshire left to form the Derbyshire Miners' Association. The SYMA began negotiating a merger with the West Yorkshire Miners' Association; this was completed in 1881, forming the new Yorkshire Miners' Association.[2]
Secretaries
- 1858: Richard Mitchell
- 1864: John Normansell
- 1875: John Frith