Editing Three-Day Week (section)

==Strike vote==
On 24 January 1974, 81% of NUM members voted to strike, having rejected the offer of a 16.5% pay rise.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/7/newsid_4054000/4054793.stm|title=1974: Heath calls snap election over miners|date=7 February 1974|publisher=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> In contrast to the regional divisions of other strikes, every region of the NUM voted by a majority in favour of strike action. The only area that did not was the [[National Federation of Colliery Officials|Colliery Officials and Staff Association]] (COSA) section. Some administrative staff had joined another union, [[Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff|APEX]], to distance themselves from the increasing militancy of the NUM. APEX members did not strike, which led to resentment amongst NUM members.<ref name="StrikeNotTheEnd25"/>

In the aftermath of the vote, there was speculation that the army would be used to transport coal and man the power stations. McGahey called in a speech for the army to disobey orders, and either stay in the barracks or join picket lines, if they were asked to break the strike. In response, 111 Labour MPs signed a statement to condemn McGahey. He responded "You can't dig coal with bayonets."<ref name="StrikeNotTheEnd25"/>

===Results by NUM area===
Taken from John Douglass' ''Strike, not the end of the story'' (National Coal Mining Museum for England publications), p.24:

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" style="text-align:center" align=centre	
|+Voting figures for strike action (NUM)
|-	
! Area / ''Groups''
! Total votes
! Votes for strike action
! % of total votes
! Votes against strike action
! % of total votes
|-
| Yorkshire||      54,570|| 49,278 || 90.30 || 5,292 || 9.70
|-
| Nottinghamshire|| 28,284 || 21,801 || 77.08 || 6,483 || 22.92
|-
| South Wales ||   26,901 || 25,058 || 93.12 || 1,843 || 6.85
|-
| Durham || 17,341 || 14,862 || 85.70 || 2,479 || 14.30
|-
| C.O.S.A. ||   15,368 || 6,066 || 39.47 || 9,302 || 60.53
|-
| Scotland ||   16,587 || 14,497 || 87.40 || 2,090 || 12.60
|-
| Midlands (West) || 12,309 || 9,016 || 73.25 || 3,293 || 26.75
|-
| North Derbyshire || 10,679 || 9,242 || 86.54 || 1,437 || 13.46
|-
| North-West||   8,637 || 7,084 || 82.02 || 1,553 || 17.98
|-
| Northumberland ||   8,420 || 7,075 || 84.03 || 1,345 || 15.97
|-
| Durham mechanics || 5,937 || 4,590 || 77.31 || 1,347 || 22.69
|-
| Group no 2 (Scotland) || 4,834 || 3,929 || 81.28 || 905 || 18.72
|-
| Cokemen ||   4,583 || 3,076 || 67.12 || 1,507 || 32.88
|-
| Power Group || 3,981 || 2,239 || 56.24 || 1,742 || 43.76
|-
| South Derbyshire || 2,604 || 1,827 || 70.16 || 777 || 29.84
|-
| Leicestershire ||   2,519 || 1,553 || 61.65 || 966 || 38.35
|-
| Kent||   2,360 || 2,117 || 89.70 || 243 || 10.30
|-
| Northumberland mechanics || 2,191 || 1,816 || 82.88 || 375 || 17.12
|-
| North Wales || 1,200 || 952 || 79.33 || 248 || 20.67
|-
| Power group no 2 || 1,164 || 681 || 58.51 || 483 || 41.49
|-
| Durham enginemen || 896 || 543 || 60.60 || 353|| 39.40
|-
| Cumberland||  880 || 775 || 88.07 || 105 || 11.93
|-
| Yorkshire enginemen||   370 || 316 || 85.41 || 54|| 14.59
	
|-	
! Total || 232,615 || 188,393 || 80.99 || 44,222 || 19.01
|}