Originally founded in the early 1940s as the Yorkshire Association of Colliery Officials and Staff, which naturally changed its name to the British Association of Colliery Officials and Staff as branches were formed outside the Yorkshire area. Then following the nationalisation of the British coal industry in May 1947 it renamed itself as the British Association of Colliery Management.
The British coal industry has been in decline ever since, a decline which if anything, has accelerated since its return to the private sector in 1994. In common with many other British Trades Unions faced with recruiting from a declining industrial sector, the Union has sought to diversify its membership base and in 1998 added the "Technical, Energy and Administrative Management" suffix to its name to reflect this fact.