The mining companies immediately appealed to the Arbitration Court for an early hearing of the various claims but, from the outset, the A.M.A. refused to be a party to Arbitration proceedings, although the craft unions were agreeable to this course. The A.M.A. declared its members would not return to work unless granted a standard wage rate of one pond a shift; a 6 hour shift,bank to bank; and the abolition of contract work. During the course of the strike, Arbitration awards were granted to the craft unions, but the A.M.A. was adamant. Such members of unions as were required for essential maintenance work were permitted to remain in employment, while the A.M.A. continued to strike. Co-operative stores were set up by the unions and the principal diet of the strikers and their families comprised bread, margarine of poor quality, potatoes and onions ( which begat the name, 'spuds and onions'strike).
The A.M.A. formed a distress Loan committee and opened a 'Loan campaign' to assist out of work miners; Miss Cogan organised a group of women to distribute clothing for children, and the Benevolent Society granted assistance to needy cases. Striking miners began to refer bitterly to the trade union aim of amalgamating all groups into One Big Union ( O.B.U.) as the 'Onions and Bread' Union. There was dissenion in union ranks, arising out of the formation of breakaway unions, the Trades and Trade Laborers Union and the Barrier Workers Association. The B.W.A. ('Blue Whiskers') clashed with the T & T.L. (Tea and Toaster's) Union when members of the latter attempted to report for work at the South Mine--one man was hit by a bicycle chain, and another suffered a stab wound. A mysterious fire broke out in the South Mine mill in July 1919, resulting in the destruction of surface buildings and the main shaft headframe, the damage being estimated at 100,000 pounds. The coroner found there was 'strong circumstantial evidence that the fires were acts of some person or persons unknown.'
A preliminary investigation into conditions at the Broken Hill mines, which was carried out in 1918 by the N.S.W. Board of Trade,recommended the setting up of a Technical Commission to thoroughly examine all issues. The onset of the strike prompted positive action and early in 1920, the Commission (headed by Professor H.G.Chapman) began an examination of all persons employed in the Broken Hill mining industry. The Commission soon discovered that pneumoconiosis existed among mine workers either in an uncomplicated form, or in association wirh tuberculosis which was also present as a separate disease. Over 6,000 mine workers were examined, of whom 259 were withdrawn from the industry and compensated under either of two new Acts--The Workmen's Compensation (Broken Hill) Act, 1920 or the Workmen's Compensation (Lead Poisoning--Broken Hill) Act,1922.
A special tribunal, consisting of five representatives each of employees and employers, presided over by Mr. Justice Edmunds (President of the N.S.W. Arbitration Court) began sittings in Sydney on 11 August 1920. After hearing evidence from both parties, Mr.Justice Edmunds gave his final decision which-not being a Court award, was not legally binding-on 20 September 1920. Upon obtaining the Judge's ruling on matters requiring interpretation, the Companies adopted the recommendations in full and, at a mass meeting of A.M.A. members, the strike was called off on 10 November 1920. The 1919-1920 strike had none of the violence and bloodshed which characterised earlier industrial disputes. There had been a resigned fatalistic acceptance as the tide of events proceeds to final confrontation between management and labour, for the time had come to secure, once and for all, proper recognition of the rights and conditions of workers in the industry.
The bitter and costly struggle had lasted for 18 months. It proved to be the last of the major strikes for which Broken Hill had achieved an unenviable reputation for over 30 years.
The principle features of the 'Edmunds Award (as it became known), the various Arbitration awards made during 1919-1921, the recommendations of the Technical Commission, and other conditions agreed between the companies and the unions were; a 35-hour week for underground workers, a base rate of fifteen shillings a shift, withdrawal from the industry of workers found to be suffering from either tuberculosis or pneumoconiosis, medical examinations before entering the industry, improved standards of ventilation, greater use of water in drilling and mining operations, no stoping of ore on night shift, and a lapse of one hour between underground shifts to allow lead-laden dust to subside.
The mining companies were responsible for establishing (in conjunction with the N.S.W. Department of Labour and Industry) a Bureau of Medical Inspection for the examination of men joining, and leaving, the industry. The '21 Diseases' examination was introduced and,to this day, must be passed by all persons, male and female, before they can become employees of the mining companies.
A number of 'compo' men were offered irrigation blocks at Griffith in 1922, but the scheme was only partly successful; however, in 1975 (53 years later) the last survivor, H.W.Willington, was still residing at his orchard at Yenda, near Griffith.
END
