RECORD SHORT STRIKE,

Hokitika Guardian, 5 November 1918, Page 3

RECORD SHORT STRIKE,

about the price of beer. The shortest strike on record in Broken Hill happened oil the morning of October 3. On the previous Sunday the local publicans decided at a meeting of the Hotelkeepers’ Union that as the wholesale cost of beer lvad been increased, it 'would be necessary for them to raise the price from 4d. al 1 round to sd. for pots. One prominent publican who was in Melbourne, is r ported to have left word with officials of the Hotelkeepers’ Union that hwould abide by its decisions, but the meeting decided not to bring in the new prices until two days later, so that the officials of the union would have : i> opportunity of communicating wil him. On Tuesday following all the publicans,- with the exception of -the one absent in Melbourne, charged the new rates and there was quickly the talk of a beer strike. After the fight held on Eight Hours morning between Gleeson and Payne, the large number of men in attendance held a meeting It was decided that nil houses where sd. a pot was charged he declared “black.’’ Some of the speakers referred to the fact that if one publican could sell at the-old price there was no reason why the others could not. After the meeting most of the men patronised this publican. The effect, of this was electrical. The Argent Street publicans did not relish the idea of his getting all the holiday custom, and they at once marked notives on the entrances to their hotels ns follows: “This house will continue to dispense beer at -Id., all round.” The strike was a complete success before it had been on an hour, and since then beer lias been served nut at. 4d., all round by nearly all the publicans in the city. Some remained at 5d., for pots for several days until the Hotelkeepers’ Union bad amended its decision of the previous Sunday.