United Carters & Drivers in Eight-hour day procession, 1914

United Carters & Drivers in Eight-hour day procession, 1914. Gelatin silver photograph, State Library Victoria Pictures Collection.

When stonemasons working on the construction of the University of Melbourne achieved the right to work no more than eight hours in a day, without loss of pay, a victory march was held on 12 May 1856.

The Eight Hour Procession became a major annual event throughout Victoria. Workers paraded with banners, floats and bands through the city and country towns, cheered by crowds of people.

So popular were the events that it was declared a public holiday, still honoured today on Labour day and used as an occasion to profile work issues.

History of the eight hours' movement, 1896

Title page of W.E. Murphy, History of the eight hours' movement, 1896

The red-and-navy banner illustrated in the bookplate was unfurled at the first triumphal Eight Hours Procession in Melbourne, after local stonemasons won the right to work no more than eight hours in a day.

Emblazoned with the campaign’s motto for a full and healthy life of eight hours’ labour, eight hours’ recreation and eight hours’ rest, the banner led annual city processions until around World War One, when reportedly it was stored in a suburban shed and disintegrated beyond repair.

Two replica banners were made for the 150th anniversary celebrations in 2006, which are held in the collections of Museums Victoria and Trades Hall.

Anarchy flag, c.1920s

J.W. (Chummy) Fleming, ‘Anarchy’ flag, c.1920s. State Library Victoria Pictures Collection.

The bright red anarchy flag was once a regular fixture at local demonstrations and debates. It belonged to J.W. (Chummy) Fleming, a prominent unionist and agitator for the unemployed, who was instrumental in starting the May Day marches to mark Victoria’s gain of the eight-hour working day.

He delivered impassioned orations at the Yarra Bank speakers’ corner, a weekend ‘outdoor parliament’ and the subject of a painting that is also on display in this exhibition.

Yarra Bank Meeting, 1923

Patrick John O’Flaghartie Fingal Harford, Yarra Bank Meeting, 1923. Oil on canvas, State Library Victoria Pictures Collection.

When Melbourne was first laid out it was designed without a civic square, in fear of it being used for public protests. Yet people still found a place to make their opinions heard.

The Yarra Bank speakers’ corner was Melbourne’s official protest ground before the rise of mass communication led to a decline in open-air debate.

The mood and momentum of speakers’ corner, a site renowned for passionate orations and conflict, is captured in this painting. It was donated to the Library by the trade unionist and politician Fred Riley, who started the Library’s Riley and Ephemera Collection - an invaluable resource for researching Victorian social and political movements.

Time's Up!, 1985

Time's Up!, 1985. Poster from the State Library Victoria Riley and Ephemera Collection.

Time’s up on the traditional nine-to-five work day. The routine hours that were won by Victorian workers more than 150 years ago no longer service the 24-7 cycles under which people operate today. What has endured is the pursuit for a fair division between work and personal time.

This poster, and others in the exhibition, champion work equality for women, who generally bear the brunt of household labour, take career and pay hits if they become mothers, and are poorly represented in conventionally male-dominated sectors.

Gender discrimination remains one of the major divisions in the workforce.

Industry of Working, 2006

Grant Hobson, Industry of Working, 2006. Gelatin silver photograph from a series of fifteen photographs, State Library Victoria Pictures Collection.

Victoria’s hidden workforce is put in the picture in this series of large photographs, which were displayed as posters in public places throughout Melbourne for the 150th commemoration of the eight-hour working day.

The candid portraits of frontline workers are juxtaposed with text from industrial relations law, putting a human face to the impersonal language. The artist has said, ‘I wanted the work to signify that these changes in the way we work and live have real impacts on real people’.

He has pasted up three of the commemorative posters in the exhibition and the complete series of photographs is held in the Library’s collection.

Vital signs: Australia's collective institutions, 2017

Sam Wallman, Vital signs: Australia's collective institutions, 2017. Artist book, State Library Victoria Rare Books Collection.

The illustrations that zigzag across the concertinaed book spell out more than the word ‘union’, and the groups of workers that form the letters speak of strength in unity.

On the reverse of the book, cartoons communicate the advances made by organised workers across time, from the abolition of child labour to the introduction of the minimum wage.

The illustrator’s inventive style of political graphics has its origins in early trade union banners, which promoted collective action through a sophisticated blend of slogans, images and metaphors.

The factory girls of Melbourne leaving work

Samuel Calvert, ‘The factory girls of Melbourne leaving work’. Exhibition print from an engraving published in the Illustrated Australian News, 20 May 1873.

The women shown clocking off from the factory floor in the newspaper illustration most likely worked in the clothing and textile industries, one of the main occupations outside the home for women in the nineteenth century.

The picture was created shortly before the formation of the Victorian Tailoresses’ Association, the first Australian women’s union and one of the earliest in the world. Threatened with a reduction in wages, several hundred women employed in small clothing workshops went on strike and several thousand others joined the union. Eventually, their log of claims was granted by employers.