Queensland Railway Workers Strike
The occasion for railway workers strike of Queensland ( English: Queensland Railway Strike ) in 1948 the dismantling of unions formed with a Labor government of Australia to the payment of qualified work and on weekends the railway workers of Queensland. The nine-week strike developed into the largest strike in the history of Queensland in Australia , affecting numerous locations. The strike lasted from February 2 to April 6, 1948. February 13, 1948 is mentioned in other sources. It was carried out jointly by the so-called running men's unions , the ARU and AFULE unions. It was a strike by railroad workers who were employed by a state railroad operated by a Labor government in Queensland.
Course of the strike
In September 1947, the Queensland Railroad Workers' Unions called the Queensland Arbitration Commission for a decision on higher wages and pay for weekend services. The Labor government of Hanlon Labor rejected both requests and offered 6 shillings and 10 pence. The union had asked for 16 shillings for the employees and 11 to 13 shillings for the others. As a result, the trade unions passed a resolution on December 12, 1947 and the start of the strike was set for February 1948.
The strike brought all rail traffic to a standstill in southern Australia and the Labor government then worked out a plan with vehicles and airplanes to keep goods and people moving. This led to more railway workers showing solidarity with the strike. The union strike leaders were shocked by the Labor government's countermeasures. and as a result communist union leaders gained influence in the strike movements and the strike became politicized. On February 27, 1948, the Labor government of Queensland Prime Minister Edward Hanlon declared a state of emergency and all trade union strike action was prohibited. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane also called on the strikers to return to their jobs. The hysteria in the middle of the Cold War peaked when the right-wing press warned of a communist plot, concentration camps and shootings in Queensland. In addition, Prime Minister Hanlon spread anti-communist prejudice on the radio by warning of civil war and attacks with Molotov cocktails under the command of the communists.
Since the Labor government did not accommodate the strikers in wage negotiations, the strike intensified. When the continuation of the strike was decided on March 5, 3,000 strikers marched outside the parliament in Brisbane . On March 9, the government declared the strike illegal. Violations could result in a fine of up to £ 1,000 and up to 6 months in prison. In the first week of March the strike front crumbled when the railroad workers in Toowoomba agreed to enable rudimentary rail operations. Between March 6 and March 16, groups of railroad workers returned to work in Bundaberg , Gympie , Emerald , Hughenden , Alpha , Roma and Queensland .
Incident on March 17, 1948
A serious incident occurred on March 17th when 200 railroad workers marched from Brisbane Trades Hall into central Brisbane in a demonstration. Among the demonstrators were numerous members of the Australian Communist Party, who mainly protested against the Industrial Law Amendment Act , which the Hanlon government sought to gain control of trade unions. At 9.15 a.m., around 100 uniformed police officers tried to break up the demonstration. Fred Paterson , the only communist ever elected to an Australian parliament, was one of the leaders of the march. When the police beat a striker, he was injured too, causing him to be ill for months. The incident fueled the crumbling strike front of railroad workers in Brisbane and Ipswich, and on March 19 there were numerous other demonstrations in Brisbane and other parts of Queensland protesting against the use of force on March 17 and for the repeal of the Industrial Law Amendment Act .
End of the strike
After March 19, the railroad workers had been on strike for 7 weeks and government and conservative press policies began to take effect. The propaganda boiled down to the fact that the law and order in the country would begin to change under the influence of the communists.
The unionists signaled that they would be ready to end the strike if 12 shillings and 4 pence were paid for the machinists. This was a demand made at a trade union meeting in September 1947 before the strike was decided.
Before negotiations with government officials before April 1, it became clear to the unions that the strike front, particularly in Rockhampton and Toowoomba, would not last longer than a week. The government agreed to the 12 shillings and 4 pence demand and further assured that the strikers would not be discriminated against and that they would not lose any rights or financial entitlements they had already acquired because of their participation in the strike. The strike was then ended, which resulted in a nearly 50 percent increase in their wages.
literature
- Olive Doug: The Queensland railway strike, February-April 1948. Ed. By the Australian communist Party (?). Brisbane: Coronation Printery 1948 (?)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b John Nebauer: A Communist in parliament: the story of Fred Paterson, October 7, 1998 on greenleft.org.au ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Douglas Blackmur: Strikes: causes, conduct & Consequences. P. 144 f. Federation Press 1993. ISBN 1862871140 Online on Google-books
- ↑ Blackmur: Strikes. P. 148
- ↑ Blackmur: Strikes. Pp. 149/150
- ↑ Blackmur: Strikes. P. 157
- ↑ Blackmur: Strikes. P. 163
- ^ Ross Fitzgerald: Fred Paterson - the People's Champion. Journal of Australian Studies, No. 54-55, 1997 , accessed March 20, 2010
- ↑ Blackmur: Strikes. P. 166 f.
- ↑ Blackmur: Strikes. P. 168
- ↑ Blackmur: Strikes. P. 171
- ↑ Blackmur: Strikes. P. 171 f.
