Strikes and lockouts

Book cover reading United We Stand: Class Struggle in Colonial Australia with an image of unionists marching.

Rebels In The Workforce: Women Worker’s Resistance in the Nineteenth Century

Read a book excerpt from United We Stand: Class Struggle in Colonial Australia which discusses women’s resistance to workplace exploitation.

Australia’s History of Workers’ Rights, Strikes and Campaigns

Learn about the history of Australian workers rights, strikes & campaigns from resources at the Australian Trade Union Institute ATUI Library.

Against Fascism and War: Pig Iron Bob and the Dalfram Dispute, Port Kembla 1938

The 1938 Dalfram dispute involved workers at Port Kembla in Australia striking and refusing to load iron on a ship bound for Japan in 1938.

A large group of men on strike sitting on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in front of one of the opera house sails. Some are wearing hard hats

How Workers Defeated Anti-Strike Laws in the 1970s

Read an excerpt from the book, Without Bosses: Radical Trade Unionism in the 1970s, about workers retaining the right to strike.

Strikers walking along a rocky beach next to the water holding signs. One reads Equal rights for all workers.

Defending Unionism: The Weipa Dispute, 1995

Learn how workers in Weipa forced a mining company to accommodate collective bargaining by combining strike action and a port blockade.

Women Fighting Back in the Depression Years

Read about the role that women played in unemployed movements during the Depression Years in Australia in this book excerpt by Janey Stone.

an old black and white photo of a procession of people walking along a street outside a hotel with text on their roof that reads Royal Hotel

Beer Strikes: A History of Hotel Boycotts in Australia, 1900-1920

Watch this video presentation about beer strikes and the history of hotel / pub boycotts in Australia in the early 1900s.

Crowd of strikers in Market Square, Brisbane

Australians general strike for right to unionize, Brisbane, Australia, 1912

Brisbane unionists organised a general strike in 1912 to protect and enhance the rights of tramways workers to organise.

Black and white photograph of a sign that reads: 'GURINDJI Mining Lease and Cattle Station'.

Australian Aboriginal workers strike for fair wages and equality, 1946-1949

Indigenous pastoral workers in the Kimberley region of Western Australia struck for equal wages and full civil rights in the late 1940s.

The flag of the Torres Strait Islands. It features a white Dhari (traditional headdress), with a five-pointed white star beneath it. The background is dark blue, with green stripes at the top and bottom of the flag.

Torres Strait soldiers stage stay at home strikes, 1943

Torres Strait Islander soldiers strike to end discrimination in the army during World War Two.

Torres Strait Islanders hold maritime strike against pearling industry, 1936

Torres Strait Islanders refused work in the Native Affairs pearling fleet due to racial discrimination and held a maritime strike in 1936.

Strikes Resource Guide

Five books, five articles and five videos on strikes by Bright Green Independent Media for Radical, Democratic and Green Movements.

Do you want to know how to run an online picket line? Here is a guide from the Victorian Trades Hall Council who ran the world’s 1st online picket line in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to launch digital actions for the campaign for #WageSubsidyForAll.

paper cut of a red triangle pointing to a cut out of australia

People’s History of Australia Podcast

People’s History of Australia-podcast and blog looking at Australian history from the perspective of ordinary people fighting together for a better life.

Tag