Tentative merger talks were opened this summer with a number of unions, including the RMT rail workers and Amicus engineers, following approaches during the anniversary of the 1984-85 dispute. Although the NUM president, Ian Lavery, yesterday said no further negotiations were planned and that it had no plans to merge, the leadership is split and amalgamation is still expected.
Discussions with the T&G transport workers ended in failure during the early 1990s, but the NUM's current plight suggests it can no longer survive on nostalgia alone. Telephone calls often go unan swered at the union's Barnsley headquarters and NUM officials concede it largely functions as a benevolent society, processing ill-health claims.
The RMT confirmed it had opened a "constructive dialogue" with the NUM. Its general secretary, Bob Crow, is painted by critics as an Arthur Scargill-type figure, briefly joining the former NUM president's Socialist Labour party, although his allies insist he is a more successful negotiator.
Mr Crow said: "We have always had a close relationship with the miners both politically and more importantly industrially, because our members have always carried coal."
Mr Lavery said it was "absolute nonsense" to suggest the union needed to link up because membership had slumped. "We are probably one of the richest unions in the country," he said.
