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• The Kokoda Trail
• Wartime Sketch Map
• The Pacific War 1942
• New Guinea Forces
• Naval Battles
• The Kokoda Campaign
• Major Battles of the Kokoda Campaign
• Commanders
• Heroes
• Diggers
• Kokoda Citations
• Kokoda Casualties
• Bomana War Cemetry
• Kokoda Campaign Bibliography
• Homefront
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Trade Unions

Trade Unions
Australians had no experience of total war, and many simply refused to recognise the threa. Union leaders sledgehammered the workers intro believing they were victims of a capitalist plot. Strikes soared, as pay and conditions deteriorated. Almost six million working days were lost due to strikes during World War 11; 4,462,925 were lost in New South Wales alone, due to that state's high proportion of civil servants and coalminers. While the number of lost working days fell during 1942, the number of industrial disputes almost doubled from 100 in 1941 (when Pearl Harbour was bombed) to 180 in 1942 (while our troops fought in the Kokoda campaign).

Source:
'Kokoda' by Paul Ham
Chapter 30
Harper-Collins, 1994