On 26 February 1908, seven miners at the small West Coast town of Blackball were fired for taking longer than their allocated fifteen minutes for lunch (‘crib time’). This action would lead to one of the first major strikes in many years, and an upsurge in labour militancy that has not been matched since.

In the Blackball mine, miners had only 15 minutes to eat their ‘crib’ or lunch – and their manager wanted to increase the working day to 10 hours. The union decided to challenge the arbitration system by striking for a longer crib time and an eight-hour day. One of the union leaders, Pat Hickey, refused to finish his pie at lunchtime when the manager told him his 15 minutes were up. Hickey and six of his supporters were fired. The rest of the Blackball Miners Union went on strike in protest.

For three months the miners resisted every effort to force them back to work. At one stage the Arbitration Court held a hearing in nearby Greymouth, where Judge Sim argued 15 minutes was more than enough time for lunch. He then proceeded to take a 90-minute lunch break before fining the miners for their illegal strike!

Finally the mining company gave in, gave the sacked men their jobs back and agreed to their demands. This was a massive blow to the arbitration system, and had an impact on unions all around the country. The various local miners’ unions joined with other unions in a national Federation of Labour, nicknamed the ‘Red Feds’ by their critics, which insisted on negotiating directly with employers, with considerable success.

This drawing of miners confronting their manager during the strike was used for a School Journal Publication, and comes from a series of Education Publication folders. More original artwork and school publications can be found in the 'Publication Folders' series: www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewEntity.do?code=699

Archives Reference: AAAD 699 Box 23 / e

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