<p>Melbourne has a rich history of strike action, occurring regularly as part of an ongoing struggle between trade unions and employers. A conflict between newspaper proprietors and printers in 1857 saw a wage rise at the Argus, but the proprietors brought non-union labour from Great Britain, and many strikers lost their jobs. Wage rates at the Age were reduced in 1858 and the union was defeated. In 1882 tailoresses in Melbourne struck successfully against a reduction in pay in what may have been the first Australian strike by females. May 1903 saw a nine-day strike by railway employees, which ended in the face of the threat of non-union labour and a Railway Strikes Suppression Bill.</p>