Australian woodworkers strike

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In 1929 the Australian Woodworkers Strike ( English : Timber Workers Strike ) took place. The woodworkers went on strike after a decision by judge Lionel Lukin at the Australian Court of Arbitration on December 23, 1928, which provided for the increase in working hours from 44 to 48 hours and the associated reduction in wages. It was a strike of the Great Depression in Australia.

Course of the strike

A spontaneous response to this decision of the arbitral tribunal was a mass rally on January 3, 1929 in Melbourne , Sydney and Adelaide , at which the four hours of overtime were protested. This prompted employers to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration that there was a strike, which resulted in a penalty under the Arbitration Amendment Act. This law was passed in 1928. The strike spread with garbage collectors and crane operators striking out of solidarity . A special conference of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) on February 7, 1929 approved the extension of the strike into a general strike movement and called for a boycott of the Federal Industrial Court , which meant that the strike was stopped by the ACTU strike committee (ACTU Disputes Committee) had to be led.

On February 25, Judge Lukin ordered a secret election of woodworkers in Victoria and New South Wales via strike. This was the first secret ballot in Australia on an industrial strike. On March 1, Judge Lukin of the Timber Workers Union imposed a fine of AU $ 1,000 and fined Jack Holloway , Secretary of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council, AU $ 50 . A protest outside the Sydney Trades Hall was followed by 25,000 trade unionists on March 25. At the event, 3,000 strikers publicly burned their ballots and marched to Hyde Park, where they burned a doll of Judge Lukin.

The secret election was largely boycotted by the workers and ended with 5,000 to 700 votes against the employers.

This strike showed a high level of union solidarity which deterred strike breakers. Women played a very active role in this, holding weekly meetings, supporting the strikers and raising money for them. There was strong support from the Australian community and other unions which made the strike possible for a long time. Only after five months was the strike ended on June 24th on a 48-hour basis, but combined with an independent investigation into the financial situation of this trade.

Towards the end of July, seven union leaders, including John Garden , the Secretary of the Labor Council of New South Wales, the Secretary of the Timber Workers Union and the President of the ACTU Disputes Committee, were due Accused of unlawful conspiracy with the use of force and threats of violence for preventing the woodworkers from doing their jobs. However, the jury acquitted them all of this charge.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diane van den Broek: The 1929 Timber Workers Strike: The Role of Community and Gender (PDF; 135 kB), accessed on March 16, 2010
  2. ↑ 1929: Timberworkers Strike on takver.com , accessed March 16, 2010