Throughout the history of Australia, there have been a number of strikes, labour disputes, student strikes, hunger strikes and other industrial actions.
19th century
1890s
- 1890 Australian maritime dispute
- 1891 Australian shearers' strike
- 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike, 16-week strike by miners in Broken Hill, New South Wales.
20th century
1910s
- 1912 Brisbane general strike, general strike in Brisbane, Queensland, following the firing of workers for wearing union badges at work.[1]
- 1917 Australian general strike
- Broken Hill mining strike, from 1919 to 1920 by miners in Broken Hill, New South Wales, over safety conditions.
- 1919 Fremantle Wharf riot
1920s
- 1923 Victorian police strike, police strike in Melbourne, Victoria, over the use of labour spies.
- 1929 Australian timber workers' strike
1930s
- 1938 Dalfram dispute, strike by dockworkers in Port Kembla, New South Wales, to prevent the export of pig iron to Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War.[2]
1940s
- In 1941 workers carried out the first official hotel strike in Victoria by walking off the job at the Hotel Alexandra to demand an area for women workers to rest and change clothes.[3]
- Strikes by dockworkers from 1945 to 1949 to prevent Dutch vessels from sailing to Indonesia during the Indonesian War of Independence, being nicknamed the Black Armada.
- Pilbara strike, from 1946 to 1949.[4]
- 1946 Queensland meatworkers' strike[5][6]
- 1948 Queensland railway strike, 9-week strike by railway workshop workers in Queensland.
- 1949 Australian coal strike
1960s
- 1964 Mount Isa Mines strike, 8-month industrial dispute at the Mount Isa Mines, Queensland, over wages.
- Wave Hill walk-off[7]
- A July 1967 strike by hotel staff in four states led to the adoption of equal pay for equal work for women in the industry.[3]
1970s
- 1971 strike by seven rugby players against playing in the Australian national team during the Apartheid-era tour by the all-white South African Springboks.[8]
- 1973 ABC strike, strike by women script assistants at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.[9][10]
- 1973 Broadmeadows Ford strike, strike at the Broadmeadows Assembly Plant.[11][12][13]
- 1973 ICI Botany strike, strike by Imperial Chemical Industries workers in Botany Bay.[14]
- 1973 Kings Cross strippers' strike, strike by strippers in Sydney, New South Wales, over wages and working conditions.
- 1973 Melbourne gravediggers' strike, 12-day strike by cemetery workers in Melbourne.[15]
- 1973 Mount Newman strike, 17-day strike by miners in Newman, Western Australia.[16]
- 1973 Revlon strike, strike by Revlon cosmetics workers in Rydalmere, New South Wales, over changes in working conditions meant to speed up production.[17][18]
- 1973 Sydney Airport strike, 5-week strike by communications workers at Sydney Airport.[19][20]
- 1973 Sydney Philosophy strike, strike by University of Sydney Department of Philosophy students demanding the introduction of a women's studies course.[21][22]
- 1973 Wee Waa strike, strike by Aboriginal cotton workers in Wee Waa, New South Wales.[23][24][13]
- 1975 Melbourne printers' strike[25][26]
- 1976 Warilla High School strike, 4-week strike by Warilla High School teachers.[27][28][29]
- 1976 one day strike by Australian Railways Union members against the transportation of uranium.[30]
- 1977 Australian air traffic controllers' strike[31][32][33]
- 1977 Latrobe Valley power strike, strike by electrical workers in the Latrobe Valley.[34][35][36][37]
1980s
- 1981 Qantas strike, by Qantas staff.[38][39]
- 1982 Queensland general strike, general strike in Queensland, demanding a 38-hour working week.[40][41]
- Mudginberri dispute, from 1983 to 1985.
- Wide Comb dispute, in 1983.
- Dollar Sweets dispute, in 1985.
- SEQEB strike of Queensland, 1985
1990s
- 1992 APPM Dispute, 3-week strike at an Associated Pulp and Paper mill in Burnie.[42][43][44]
- 1994 Tomago aluminium strike, 24-day strike at the Tomago aluminium smelter over wages.[45][46]
- Weipa Dispute, 6-week strike in 1995 at the Weipa bauxite mine, Queensland, over discrimination against unionised workers.[47]
- 1997 Curragh miners' strike, 15-week strike by Curragh coal mine miners.[48][49]
21st century
2010s
- 2015 Australia women's national soccer team strike, 2-month strike by Australia women's national soccer team players over wages and working conditions.
- 2018 Alcoa strike, by Alcoa workers in Australia, the first in 8 years.[50]
2020s
- 2023 Chevron Australia strike - strike at the three liquefied natural gas facilities of the Chevron Corporation in Australia, representing around 5% of global LNG production;[51][52]
- 2024 ASC strikes, by ASC Pty Ltd workers in Australia.[53]
References
- ^ Kim, Jeewon (2021-09-30). "Australians General Strike for Right to Unionize, Brisbane, Australia, 1912". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ Donaldson, Mike; Southall, Nick (2022-10-31). "Against Fascism and War: Pig Iron Bob and the Dalfram Dispute, Port Kembla 1938". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ a b McIntyre, Iain (2023-11-18). "Jean Young, Kath Williams and the Fight for Equal Pay". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ Cohen, Dylan (2021-09-07). "Australian Aboriginal workers strike for fair wages and equality, 1946-1949". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ "Workers' Gains in Big Queensland Struggle". Tribune. 26 July 1946.
- ^ Stewart, Gordon; Bowden, Bradley (8 November 2020). "The 1946 Meat Strike in Queensland: A Regional Perspective". International Journal of Employment Studies. 12 (1): 19–42.
- ^ Rivard, Angeline (2021-08-24). "Indigenous Gurindji win Land Rights in Australia (Wave Hill Walk Off) 1966-1975". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ Bernhardt, Arielle (2021-09-17). "Australians Block Cricket and Impede Rugby Tour of Apartheid South Africa, 1971". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ Baker, Jeannine; Connors, Jane (2020). "'Glorified typists' in no-man's land: The ABC script assistants' strike of 1973". Women's History Review. 29 (5): 841–859. doi:10.1080/09612025.2019.1703539.
- ^ "ABC strike puts live programs off air". Canberra Times. 28 April 1973.
- ^ Tracy, Constance Lever (2020). "A new Australian working class leadership: The case of Ford Broadmeadows". Ethnicity, Class and Gender in Australia. pp. 123–143. doi:10.4324/9781003115540-8. ISBN 978-1-003-11554-0.
- ^ "1973: Broadmeadows Ford workers' strike". LibCom. 10 September 2006. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
- ^ a b The Peoples' Hiistory of Australia (2020-04-09). "People's History of Australia Podcast". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ "Chemical workers action". Tribune. 13 March 1973. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ "Strike ends". The Canberra Times. 15 February 1973. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ "Strike ends". The Canberra Times. 14 November 1973. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ "Revlon cosmetics women on strike". Tribune. 29 May 1973. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ "REVLON FIGHT AT NEW STAGE". Tribune. 5 June 1973. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ "AUSSIE AIR TRAFFIC IN CHAOS". The Straits Times. 3 October 1973. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ "That airport shutdown". Tribune. 6 November 1973. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ Clark, Maddie (16 August 2021). "The strike that won a feminist philosophy department". Honi Soit. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
- ^ https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/HUL/article/view/5336
- ^ "BLACK WORKERS STRIKE AT WEE WAA". Tribune. 16 January 1973. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ Humphreys, Jordan (5 April 2022). "When Black Power came to Wee Waa: the 1973 cotton chippers' strike". Red Flag. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ Heekeren, Margaret (1 January 2014). "STRIKES (JOURNALISTS' AND PRINTERS')". A Companion to the Australian Media. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
- ^ "MELBOURNE PRINTERS STRIKE". Tribune. 26 August 1975. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
- ^ "Teachers make gains". Tribune. 17 March 1976. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
- ^ Bradley, Jim (14 February 2001). "Warilla teachers' strike remembered". Green Left. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
- ^ Ashbolt, A. (1 January 2006). "The Warilla High School Strike: a veritable class struggle". Illawarra Unity. S2CID 159261155. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
- ^ Schoolmeester, Kelly (2021-09-30). "Australians Campaign against Nuclear Power and Uranium Mining, 1974-1988". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ Withington, David (9 May 2021). "From the Archives, 1977: Air strike strands thousands overseas". The Age. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ "Air strike to go on as crisis talks collapse". The Business Times. 11 May 1977. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ Butterfield, Fox (13 May 1977). "Australian Leader Threatens to Seek An Anti-Strike Bill". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ Benson, John William (1 June 1979). "The 1977 Latrobe Valley SECV Maintenance Workers' Strike". Journal of Industrial Relations. 21 (2): 217–228. doi:10.1177/002218567902100205. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ Steel, Kathryn M. (1 December 2013). "Point of View: A Significant Regional Industrial Dispute from a Novel Perspective". Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ "Latrobe Valley's 1977 power strike". Solidarity. 8 September 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ "STORY BEHIND THE POWER STRIKE". The Australian Women's Weekly. 16 November 1977. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ "Qantas Ground Staff Strike". The New York Times. 24 February 1981. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
- ^ Dennis, C. Gregory (7 April 1981). "Qantas flies, but Australian airline-union dispute lingers". CS Monitor. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
- ^ Thomas, Amy (12 October 2012). "Defying the law: the Queensland 1982 general strike". Solidarity. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
- ^ "What do you remember about 1982?". 31 December 2012.
- ^ Baker, David (2 October 1999). "Community Police Peacekeeping Amidst Bitter and Divisive Industrial Confrontation: The 1992 APPM Dispute at Burnie". Labour & Community. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
- ^ Tierney, Robert (1 December 1999). "Class Struggle and the "Community of Families": The 1992 Dispute at Associated Pulp and Paper Mills". Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
- ^ Jamieson, Ian (24 June 1992). "APPM: after the strike". Green Left. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
- ^ Hopkinson, Shane (14 September 1994). "Tomago strike ends". Green Left. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
- ^ "Aluminium firm despite end of strike". The Business Times. 6 September 1994. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
- ^ Ross, Liz (2022-06-22). "Defending Unionism: The Weipa Dispute, 1995". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ Glenning, Paul (27 August 1997). "Curragh miners claim victory". Green Left. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
- ^ Long, Stepphen (22 August 1997). "AIRC intervenes in coal strike". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
- ^ "Behind the Picket Line – Alcoa Strike 2018". Australian Workers' Union. 8 August 2021. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ McGuirk, Rob (22 September 2023). "Labor unions say they will end strike actions at Chevron's three LNG plants in Australia". AP News. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
- ^ Chow, Emily (8 September 2023). "Explainer: Chevron Australia LNG workers start strike. What happens now?". Reuters. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
- ^ Jackson, Lewis (7 August 2024). "Australian state-owned sub builder hit by more strikes at crucial shipyard". Reuters. Retrieved 21 September 2024.