Editing Three-Day Week (section)

==NUM control of picketing==
There had been some violence on miners' picket lines during the [[1969 United Kingdom miners' strike|unofficial strike of 1969]] and the [[1972 United Kingdom miners' strike|official strike of 1972]].<ref name="StrikeNotTheEnd25">{{cite book|last1=Douglass|first1=David John|title=Strike, not the end of the story |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gba2YgEACAAJ&q=Strike,+not+the+end+of+the+story.|publisher=National Coal Mining Museum for England|location=Overton, Yorkshire, UK|year=2005|pages=23–25|isbn=9781872925097}}</ref>  Aware of the damage that could be done to the Labour Party's electoral prospects by media coverage of picket-line violence, the NUM instituted strict controls over pickets.<ref name="StrikeNotTheEnd25"/>  Pickets had to wear armbands saying "official picket" and had to be authorised by areas.<ref name="StrikeNotTheEnd25"/>  Unlike in 1972, students were discouraged from joining miners' picket lines.<ref name="StrikeNotTheEnd25"/>  Every picket line had to be authorised by the local NUM area with a chief picket to ensure that no violence took place.<ref name="StrikeNotTheEnd25"/>