Historical Information

Tom Dalton was a Meter-Maker at the South Melbourne Gasworks from at least 1911, when he and Ida married.
He was one of the workers at the South Melbourne Gasworks who participated in the
first stay-in strike in Melbourne in 1937.
“On the evening of 11 August 1937, night shift workers at Melbourne’s two gasworks
introduced an industrial tradition unknown to Victoria: an extended stay-in strike. It was to last another 15 days involving nearly 1,000 gas workers, followed by a brief, second stay-in strike that ended on 2 September”, wrote Phillip Deery, emeritus professor of history at Victoria University, in his paper on the strike.
My mother, Joan can remember her brother, Jim taking a ‘swag’ of clean clothes and
food to the gas works. He dodged the police guarding the perimeter to get close
enough to hurl the parcel over the gates, yelling Tom’s name. He duly appeared from
inside the crib room, scooped up the parcel, asked about the family and told Jim they
were doing fine.

Louise Connor
 

Deery’s article, “A Calculating Blow”: The 1937 Melbourne Stay-In Strike, was
published in the Labour History Journal, Number 128 (May 2025).
 

Click below to view a PDF of the article and clippings about the strike, and here's an excerpt from it:
 

Inside the Stay-In strike
“From the outset, committees were elected to run the machinery of the strike. The most important was the committee responsible for picketing. The pickets were organised with military-like efficiency. Overseeing all pickets was a “commander,” while “captains” were in charge of individual pickets. They were responsible not only for preventing the entry of unauthorised persons, but also the maintenance of discipline. Alcohol was prohibited, despite some grumbles, and cleanliness strictly enforced.
Guarding all gates in the shadows of the huge gasometers whose levels were steadily falling, the pickets were on duty for 24 hours in two-hour shifts. Behind the high brick walls, described as “gaol-like,” another committee organised food supplies. With about 800 men inside, this was a significant undertaking. A cart left most mornings for the Victoria and South Melbourne markets where sympathetic traders sold bread, meat, vegetables and fruit at cost price. The carts bringing in supplies were the only vehicles the pickets at the gates permitted entry to the works.
At first there was a shortage of eating utensils, but this was soon remedied by
donations from the local community.
A rotating kitchen staff cooked and served meals that were provided in the “Hotel Federal” whose ironic signage read “NO WAITERS.” Food was also provided by family members who visited the two sites, sometimes with prams filled with parcels, shaving gear and changes of clothing. Wives and children were permitted by the pickets to engage with their menfolk, thereby helping to buoy their spirits. To help pay for provisions, working union members were levied £1 weekly, the NSW branch of the GEU sent £200 weekly, as did other unions including engineers, tramways and carters and drivers. (This enabled the payment of strike relief of £1 each week to strikers’ wives.)
A further committee, important for morale, assumed the role of providing
entertainment. The front page of the Sun on 19 August carried a striking semi-aerial
photo (taken, presumably, atop the wall into the South Melbourne gasworks) of men in pairs dancing together to the music of the “Spider” Wilson, whose band consisted of strikers playing the accordion, harmonica, bass and drums. Separately, on a Sunday afternoon, strikers sitting on the walls – as well as 2,000 supporters, comprising mainly family members, assembled in adjacent Graham Street – were entertained by the South Melbourne City Band. “From the ranks of the men, skilled musicians, singers, comedians, acrobats and all kinds of impromptu performers emerged,” noted a contemporary pamphlet. There were also card and draught games, quoits, table tennis, cricket and football matches, singing groups led by an accordion player (Irish songs were favoured), and ample reading matter was supplied. Two wireless sets were hired to provide both entertainment and outside news of the dispute. The stay-ins would have listened with interest to the three evening radio broadcasts given by the union secretary, Charlie Crofts, on the Labor-owned station 3KZ66.
Highly disciplined cleaning squads were organised. They were responsible for the regular cleaning of the yards, the men’s rooms, toilets and kitchen areas. Because of the secrecy surrounding the intended stay-in, maintained until the last minute, sleeping arrangements, initially, were makeshift. Soon, however, hammocks and camp stretchers replaced the floor and tables, and straw-filled beds and blankets replaced overcoats and bags. Hair was cut and stubble shaved by three barbers and the union even arranged for visiting medical support, if needed. One striker commented, “This is no picnic for us. We are living under difficulties,” but the various committees ensured that privations were limited and grievances minimised. The logistics involved were vast but efficiently implemented.
Typical of stay-ins, solidarity remained intact: not one striker walked out, not one flouted the beer ban, and not one, apparently, abrogated assigned duties. And all continued to believe in ultimate victory for their cause. That total success was not achieved was acknowledged by Charlie Crofts. Had the stay-in been extended “for a few days longer,” he wrote, this “historic industrial struggle which brought partial victory” would have resulted in “a complete win.” This outcome was not due to any weakening of the ranks or dilution of spirit among those occupying the gasworks, but to events unfolding some miles away at the Trades Hall in Carlton.

Win for the workers

Despite the company declaring that “agitators were behind the strike,” significant concessions were extracted and embodied in a new award. They included a new
computation of the “needs” basic wage, increased annual leave for shift workers, and
restoration of the 3s industry allowance, but not the 6s sought by the union. The strike officially ended on Friday 27 August. Amid “remarkable scenes of enthusiasm,” strikers banged tins, threw hats in the air and shouted, “We’ve won!” streaming into the streets for family greetings.
According to one paper, the strike “showed the effectiveness of the stay-in method” and that the company’s earlier intransigence “was reversed by the solidarity of the strikers.”

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With permission