The 1908 Blackball strike was followed by the unsuccessful Waihi miners’ strike in 1912. By this time, most of the miners’ unions had withdrawn from the compulsory arbitration system under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act and were unregistered. When a breakaway union formed in Waihi and registered under the Act, the members of the unregistered union struck. During the course of the strike a new Government led by the Reform Party took power, and the strike was broken with the assistance of extra police to protect the strikebreakers.
The following year, a strike began on the Wellington waterfront and developed into a general strike involving some 37 unions. It too was broken, and the Government used special constables armed with batons against the striking workers. The Labour Disputes Investigation Act 1913 was passed, setting down specific procedures for dealing with disputes between unregistered unions and their employers.
Both the Waihi strike and the subsequent general strike were major defeats for the union movement.
