Talk:Union of Democratic Mineworkers

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Who disputes the neutrality of this article, and why? Drutt (talk) 03:35, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Me, now. The whole tone is subtly anti-UDM, with a first paragraph that contradicts itself and the infobox thing (the union appears to have been criticised before it was even founded, for instance) and undue prominence given to a minor news story about corruption that would get nowhere on the NUM page. And no, before you ask, I'm not a UDM member, I'm not a miner, I'm not a member of any political party although I am a socialist, and I have no direct connection with mining at all (my uncle worked for the NCB/BC in South Wales, not as a miner, but I haven't seen him for 20 years). I came here after hearing the awful news from Swansea and wondering if the UDM was still going. Sadly, the article told me nothing of use. Less Awfulness (talk) 17:22, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I actually came onto this page to quickly pull the citations for the facts that the UDM was regarded as a "scab Union" in the '80s, contained many undercover police in senior positions, and co-operated closely with the Thatcher Government to undermine the striking NUM, but strangely none of those facts are on here - so yeah I agree that it has VERY questionable neutrality, but not for the reasons you think it does. Guess I'll look somewhere else. Source on the latter 2 claims is Government papers released under the 30 year rule, source on the former is another page on Wikipedia.2A00:23C6:8A08:1100:B80E:A8D6:F17E:CAE (talk) 17:07, 8 August 2019 (UTC)

Assessment comment

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Seems bitter, for example in saying "widely regarded as" rather than letting membership figures of the breakaway the bigger mining union speak for themselves. Also the union's name begs an unananswered question: was it more democratic than rival unions? Readers might want to know. The lawyer's union-come-government-quango, The Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority, is investigating Beresfords' Solicitors for paying referral fees to the union but anonymous interviews by trades union lawyers accuse the society of covering-up the same behaviour by the well-known large firms acting for the big well known unions: the breakaway union is used as an example but nobody criticises large unions who want referral fees from their lawyers. We in the UK aren't used to no-win no-fee lawyers which have only existed for ten years, and most union members are easily mislead into thinking that they're getting pre-paid legal help from their expensive unions. The anonymous lawyers' interviews are on page 46 of the report and the long url for the html version is here http://216.239.59.132/search?q=cache:3fjW5tWaS1wJ:web.inpractice.co.uk/Downloads/Law%20Soc%20Referral%20Fee%20Research,% 20July%2007.pdf+solicitor+failure+disclose+referral+fee+union&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=uk 80.177.114.0 (talk) 18:28, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Last edited at 18:28, 2 December 2008 (UTC). Substituted at 09:33, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

And The Final Outcome Was?

This article does not seem to record any outcome. By helping the govt with its' aims, what was the reward for UDM members? For, with the pits shut down, all of the "union" members lost their jobs in the end. Wonder what Thatchers' brave freedom fighters thought about that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.149.166.178 (talk) 19:31, 17 September 2023 (UTC)

UDM

No mention that when first formed it was called the Democratic Union of Mineworkers until they realised this spelt out as D.U.M. and it was swiftly changed. 89.242.242.174 (talk) 20:52, 29 January 2024 (UTC)