The 1908 Blackball miners' strike was industrial action that happened when seven miners in the small town of Blackball, on New Zealand's West Coast, were dismissed for taking longer than their allocated fifteen minutes ('crib time'), for lunch. This was one of many issues that were causing discontent within the coal-mining industry that was set up as a series of capitalist enterprises to meet the shipping needs of Britain as an imperial power. When Blackball township was established, the mining company provided low-quality living and working conditions for the miners and after the town became populated by immigrants with union experience overseas, some of the grievances that eventually resulted in the strike emerged. The strike has been seen as a formative event in New Zealand history because of the successful outcome for the miners from the eleven-week strike by the use of direct action and organised unionism. This was the first real challenge to the Arbitration Court, set up under legislation by the Liberal Government in 1894 to support mediation in industrial disputes, and highlighted the difficulties of getting a resolution because of the wide range of political, social and cultural factors that resulted in a degree of intransigence by both the miners and the mine company. A number of the leading strikers subsequently became leaders in the political labour movement.
Background Mining for coal in New Zealand came into prominence in the period between 1875 and 1914 described by one historian as the "Age of the Empire" when the British imperial capitalist system shaped the New Zealand economic, cultural and social landscape. With an increase in the shipping of passengers and frozen meat between Britain and New Zealand, British maritime interests needed an independent coal supply. This brought about a change in the New Zealand economy. It had been driven previously by agriculture and from the 1860s, by gold mining, but to meet the demands of the shipping trade, finance was needed for infrastructure and investment in public works such as improved railway networks. This finance was available from Britain and allowed a more centralised development plan for the country than the provincial governments had been able to provide. While this created dependence on an imperialistic relationship with Britain that was built on heightened loyalty, the investment in public works enabled the practical development of the coal mining industry. The accentuation of class and regional differences in the interests of financial gain, however, contributed to later industrial relations conflicts that led to actions such as the 1908 Blackball Miners’ strike.
Blackball as a mining town Early European settlement of the area was the result of gold mining, beginning around 1866. A Greymouth businessman, Joseph Kilgour, who had mining rights in the area in 1877, later found some seams of coal, and a group of locals advised in 1884 that they were applying for rights to prospect in a site adjacent to Kilgour's. The Black Ball Creek Coal Company (BBCCC) was registered on 14 January 1885 but by 1886, after transfer of the leases, The Black Ball Coal Company (BCC) was established with a board based in Christchurch. In 1892 the company was underwritten by British financiers, the Black Ball Shipping Company of England which retained the Christchurch directors, and the Black Ball Coal Mining Company of New Zealand (BBCMC of NZ Ltd) was established. Members of the Christchurch-based Board of Directors had some reservations about managing the "interests of overseas owners", and the miners were said to have held the company in "low regard". Nevertheless, the renamed Blackball Coal Mining Company (Limited), established a coal mine in 1893, and "the township of Blackball (named after the company) was laid out, and sections were auctioned".
The company's prospects were looking good in 1893 with the completion of a 4.5 km-long aerial ropeway across the Grey River as a conveyance to connect with rail at Ngahere. A writer in New Zealand Geographic noted that "shareholders in Christchurch and London had reason to feel confident, with confirmed demand for 100,000 tonnes of coal per year and a colonial government which boasted internationally of a strike-free record among workers".
The demographic of Blackball was to have significance during later disputes with the company. By 1908 the town had a population around 380, with about 150 being miners, although this could rise considerably during busy periods for the mine. There is documentation that shows around 50 per cent of the residents in 1908 were likely to have been descendants of settlers from the coalfields of England, some of whom would have had a background in British unionism [and] "a commitment and determination to improve conditions in the workplace". The same historian suggests that their approach would be "pragmatic and opportunistic not ideological...[and]...occupational identity and union solidarity was the key". The writer continues that immigrants from coalmines in Scotland were said to have brought an independence to struggles with capitalist employers and less of an inclination to develop "partnerships between capital and labour". A third group of immigrants came from Ireland, some via the gold mines in Australia, and they appear to have been able to adapt well to the "casual nature of employment that prevailed in Blackball". It is held in the historiography [that] "the extremes of miner militancy that developed in Blackball owed much to the previous experience and perceptions of these immigrant miners...[and]...circumstances and events at Blackball tended to reinforce rather than lessen their sense of struggle". As a result, there appears to have been "a high level of class-consciousness and a heightened sense of community".
Housing conditions in Blackball were poor in what was seen as an abduction of duty on the part of the Mining Company to provide adequate living conditions for the workers. Houses were said to have been "sparsely furnished", without facilities to dry clothes and water supplies where were often "contaminated with soot...[while]...the water to the miner manager's and the comp any officials' houses ran fresh and clean from a tributary of Blackball Creek".
Rising discontent In spite of the Company apparently doing well, there was a growing discontent amongst the miners. As well as low pay, 10 hours underground every day and a short lunch break, the work was extremely dangerous. Miners regularly had to be wary of rockfalls, blastings and the "hazards of makeshift heavy gear". Some miners were said to have suffered from silicosis, caused by fine particles that settled in the lungs, caused by "firedamp (dangerously explosive methane), rising damp (carbon dioxide, which penetrated the skin), water damp (moisture full of sulphuric acid) and blackdamp (fumes of poisonous hydrogen sulphide)".
Mining, as integral to a capitalist system meeting the laws of supply and demand, often manifested in Blackball as casual employment arrangements. These were sometimes governed by expectations miners would work double shifts to minimise the number of days they were required to work. But these fluctuations in labour and the uncertain nature of dismissals, were a concern for miners.
Historian Erik Olssen notes that in 1904, after losing a significant amount of money in previous years, the Blackball Mining Company dismissed all the miners, later to re-employ half of them. During 1905 most miners worked only one day a week and had to supplement their income by "growing vegetables, running a few hens, and perhaps a cow...and working where possible as casual labourers in timber mills or on public works projects". The union effectively collapsed and although economic conditions had improved by 1907, the miners were "exhausted and suspicious....[and]...remembered other grievances with the company". One of these was a claim that the miners were being underpaid because of inaccurate measures of the tub weights, confirmed in the Otago Daily Times on 4 May 1908, with a report that the management agreed with the miners.
The industrial action Decision to strike
The Blackball Miner's Union had been formed in 1899 and was registered under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, with their award agreement entitling them to only 15 minutes for their 'crib' or lunch break. At the time there were miners present at Blackball who had been involved in militant action in other mines, including Patrick Hickey and Paddy Webb, and there was a growing discontent amongst the miners about aspects of the award, including the length of the working day, and the issue of a short time for lunch. Early in February 1908, Hickey refused to comply with this and subsequently appeared in court for not following his manager's instructions. On 27 February Hickey, Webb and five miners who were members of the recently formed Socialist Branch, also refused to accept the 15-minute break, and all were dismissed by the manager Walter Leitch. It has been said that Leitch was influenced in making this decision because Hickey had taken a group of unionists to meet with the then Minister of Labour, Robert McNab the previous day. At that meeting Hickey spoke strongly about "poor ventilation, violation of the Coal Mines Act, and the refusal of government inspectors to enforce the law." The miners' union met and decided that unless the Company could provide a satisfactory reason for dismissing the men, they would all have to re-employed and compensated for time lost. Leitch met with the union delegates on 27 February and attempted to explain why he had made the decision to dismiss the men. He also made an offer to reinstate the men without paying them compensation for lost time, but members of the union rejected this with a vote 125-5 against the proposal. When the union added another demand to which Leitch did not agree, the strike began.
Support from other unions There was mixed support for the strike from other unions around New Zealand. A meeting of the Grey Wharf Workers Union criticised the action of the Blackball miners, overwhelmingly voting in favour of them returning to work, and the Otago Trades and Labour Council advised "affiliated unions [against granting] assistance to the Blackball miners". Tyneside miners later voted by a large majority to not support the strike and the Brunner Miners' Union moved a motion that the action of the Blackball minors constituted a breach of the Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation Act, with an amendment adding: "That we respectfully request the management to refrain from supplying orders from the Blackball Coal Company." At a meeting of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council however, support for the miners was tabled by the Tailoring Trade Union, while "the Plasterers, General Labourers, Freezer, Slaughtermen's Assistants and Moulders wrote to the same effect". The Lyttelton Casual Wharf Labourers' Union offered a donation to the strikers, but said it did not agree with the action as it went against the law of the land, and the Typographical Union wrote that it "disagreed with the Blackball Union for going out on strike".
The arbitration process The 1894 Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act was drawn up by William Pember Reeves in an attempt by the Liberal government in New Zealand to avoid future strikes such as the 1890 Aucklander Watersiders' action in support of a dispute in Australia. It was not compulsory for unions to register under the Act, but those that did, were required to attend compulsory arbitration and not strike "while a dispute was being negotiated and once an agreement had been settled", with employers not able to impose lockdowns. Some powerful unions disliked losing the right to strike and employers opposed judges making decisions about wages and working condition, "instead of relying on the labour market".