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 at the White Bear Inn in Barnsley in response to a planned wage cut, with Richard Mitchell appointed a few weeks later as its secretary. Following the formation of the union, colliery owners agreed not to impose cuts, but at the Oaks Colliery, the owner refused to re-employ union members. Following a lengthy strike, they were taken back, although they had to draw lots with blackleg workers for the seams of coal they had been working. Several more disputes took place over the next few years, the most important in 1859 at Wharncliffe Silkstone Colliery, where workers succeeded in keeping an ele