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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Special General Strike Issue. September 24 1979

A History of Struggle: 1913 Strike

A History of Struggle: 1913 Strike

Last week's General Strike is an important milestone in the history of New Zealand's industrial relations. However it is not the first union struggle of impressive dimensions.

In a sense, there has only been one "general' strike called in New Zealand's history. It occured in 1913; and interestingly, involved the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894. This Act set up an Arbitration Court; and the Arbitration Court procedure was very much involved in last week's strike.

Weak Unions

After 1890, the trade unions were in a weak position due to the failure of that year's Maritime Strike, and in 1894 the Liberal Government introduced its Arbitration Act.

This Government had earlier passed some progressive labour policy — and despite the fine principle of forced arbitration on employers — this Act was one which weakened the Union movement for many years. Before a union could come under the power of the Arbitration Court it had to register under the Act. In doing so, it was the Government which determined what were "acceptable" union rules and dues. The Act also gave the Government the power to rescind registration of a [unclear: union] for any reason (especially if a union were to go on strike) and had the power to determine which unions would be registered.

Unions were registered on a regional basis — effectively destroying any chance of a national union movement. Registered unions could not legally strike, and unregistered unions were not in a position to strike.

A Drop in Real Wages

From 1894 to 1900, the Arbitration Court granted wage rises which kept up with the cost of living. But in the first six years of this century — with an industrial boom and profits soaring — the Arbitration Court let real wages fall. In the 12 years between 1894 and 1906 there was not one strike. However rising discontent with the Arbitration system lead the Auckland [unclear: ramwaymen] to successfully strike in November 1906. The strike was important as a morale boost to the union movement —it showed that strikes, and successful ones, were possible

Further strikes occured in 1907 and 1908 after the [unclear: Arbitnation] Court refused to grant fully justified union claims. The [unclear: success] of the miners' strike of 1908 further discredited the [unclear: Arbitration] procedure. It was this West Coast mining strike [unclear: hat] sparked the formation of the United Federation of Labour UFL)or "Red Feds".

Clampdown on the UFL

The growing power of the UFL made the employing class [unclear: nxious] enough to precipitate a chain of events designed to rush the UFL. On October 6, 1913, E.W. Alison (Chairman of the Taupini Coal Company, and personal friend of Prime Minister Massey) dismissed 16 Huntly miners, causing 560 [unclear: hines] to stike. In Wellington, in the same month, employers [unclear: locked] out 1500 watersiders at the end of a stop-work meeting. [unclear: before] long, all miners', watersiders, and seamen's unions [unclear: ffiliated] to the UFL were on strike. But the Government, clearly working in the interests of the employers (the wharves were in a slack period at the time) created "special constables" from groups of farmers in order to crush the strikers' movement and re-open the ports. The Government also called in two ships from the Royal Navy — and armed sailors conducted exercises in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch ports, as a reminder to the strikers of the power and role of the State.

When the Government-organised farmers' groups registered under the Arbitration Act as "trade unions", the Auckland based UFL called a General Strike on 10 November 1913. But the response outside Auckland was poor. The response of the Government was to arrest UFL leaders on charges of sedition.

In some areas the strike lasted until the end of the year, but employers sensed victory and demanded total surrender and the destruction of the UFL. The Courts, aiding the employers, ruled that "registered" unions could not give money to the strikers. Similarly, the Government passed legislation making all strikes illegal, and strikers liable to prosecution. Thus the strike, and the "Red Feds" were broken by collaboration between the employers and the Government.