Arrival of SS Dalfram

The arrival of the British tramp steamer Dalfram, which berthed at No. 4 jetty in Port Kembla on 15 November 1938, ignited the dispute. When the nature of the cargo and its destination were confirmed,^[12] a walk-off eventuated around 11am.

The next day at pick up time the Dalfram was the first ship called to be worked. This resulted in refusal by the waterside workers, and as no other ship work was called, thus effectively a lockout eventuated for all ships then at Port Kembla.^[13]

Other union organisations were quick to support the Port Kembla waterside workers, including the Illawarra Trades and Labour Council, Sydney Labour Council, the Federated Ironworkers' Association, Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Association, and the Australian Workers Union. Even the Indian seamen on board the Dalfram refused to move the ship to another berth where non union labour could be employed.^[14]

Support for the strike by Waterside Workers' Federation Federal officials and the Federal Labor Party has been categorised as lukewarm by historians. This was a dispute where local decision making was essentially driving the action, with support among more leftwing unionists around Australia.^[2]

The dispute dragged on for 10 weeks and 2 days and received financial support from around Australia, particularly from the Australian Labour movement, but also from the Chinese immigrant community in Sydney who supplied truckloads of produce to help the families of the striking workers.^[5]

Menzies and the dispute

Attorney General Robert Menzies first threatened use of the Transport Workers Act on 28 November 1938. He accused the union of dictating foreign policy, and argued that the elected government had the sole right to decide goods to be traded and what relationships were to be established with foreign powers.^[15]

Menzies met with WWF leader Jim Healy on 7 December. That day the Transport Workers’ Act was applied at Port Kembla. Only one licence was taken out and that was publicly burned in front of Customs House. There was immediate support from other unions for the strike action and the wharves were declared black.^[2]

On 17 December BHP laid off 4000 men claiming that the Dalfram dispute was responsible for bringing everything to a standstill.^[2]

Attorney-General Menzies made an attempt to settle the dispute by calling a meeting with the Combined Union Committee at Wollongong for 11 January 1939. Workers responded by little demonstrations along the small coal mining villages along the coast and over 1000 people in Wollongong.^[2]

Menzies met with the Mayor and dignitaries in the Wollongong Hotel. He was due to meet with union officials across the road but the large crowd initially prevented him. The police inspector present asked local union official Ted Roach if he could organise safe passage through the crowd. Union members thus cleared a path through the crowd for Menzies to walk to the meeting with officials.^[2]

"Pig Iron Bob" nickname

It was during the Dalfram dispute that the title "Pig Iron Bob" was coined in reference to the then Attorney General Robert Menzies. Local union official Ted Roach claimed^[16] that the epithet was first used by Mrs. Gwendoline Croft, a member of the local women's relief committee.^[5] It was later picked up by the Rev. Bill Hobbin, a former Methodist minister, and Stan Moran, the well-known wharfie and communist Domain orator.^[2][17]

Dispute end and aftermath

On 21 January 1939 after 10 weeks and two days on strike the waterside workers at Port Kembla decided to load the pig iron "under protest".^[2]

The Lyons government policy of appeasement of Japanese military aggression and opposition to the trade union bans on trade with Japan were not entirely unanimous. External Affairs minister Billy Hughes appears to have attempted to undermine the government policy according to at least one historian, who conjectures this may have been due to Hughes' past links with the Waterside Workers' Federation, being the first President of the union in 1902. The day after the workers at Port Kembla capitulated Billy Hughes delivered a vitriolic speech attacking Japanese militarism and its threat to Australia.^[18]

On 24 January, Jim Healy met with Government representatives and received an unofficial assurance that no more pig-iron would be shipped to Japan, although it is debated to whether this was actually the case or that some shipments of scrap metal and pig iron were made.^[2]

Melbourne waterside workers refused to load scrap iron on to a German ship in May 1938.^[2]

The dispute brought together the Illawarra labour movement and elements of Sydney's Chinese immigrant community and contributed in a small way to the breakdown of the White Australia policy.^[2][5]

Much more significantly, it heralded a rising militancy in Australia by the Waterside' Workers Federation and the union movement as World War II was about to unfold.^[2]