Christmas Island Strike: Workers vs Colonial Management
On 27 March 1974 a strike began on Christmas Island, an Australian colony essentially run by the British Phosphate Commissioners (BPC), a phosphate mining company. The firm employed mostly Asian workers from Singapore, Malaysia and China, who were low-paid and housed in inadequate accommodation, and European workers who were paid five times as much as Asians and had better quality housing and schools.
The catalyst for the strike was the sacking of an interpreter, Teo Boon How, on March 26, who was due to be deported the next day. In his support, over 1100 Asian workers took to the streets instead of going to work, forcing BPC to reinstate How.
The following year, How helped establish a secret union, the Union of Christmas Island Workers (UCIW), which would organise further strikes.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7925/christmas-island-dismissal-strike
