The 1890 Australian maritime dispute was an industrial dispute that began on 15 August 1890 when the Mercantile Marine Officers' Association directed its members to give 24 hours notice to their employers after negotiations broke down with the Steamship Owners' Association of Victoria over longstanding pay and conditions claims.
Ostensibly over pay and conditions, the causes of the dispute were considered more complex, and point to an employer conspiracy to render trade union activity ineffective, and employer activity to counter union solidarity in secondary boycott of non-union shorn wool in the pastoral industry.
In early July 1890, the Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australasia issued a manifesto calling for a boycott on non-union wool shorn in the coming shearing season.
In Melbourne, the announcement that a public meeting was going to be held on 31 August 1890 to support the maritime strikers sent the Victorian government into precautionary mode.
On the eve of the meeting, the Victorian Mounted Rifles were briefed by their commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Price: Men of the Mounted Rifles, one of your obligations imposes on you the duty of resisting invasion by a foreign enemy, but you are also liable to be called upon to assist in preserving law and order in the colony.
The New South Wales Labour Defence Committee summed up the union's mood in this statement: the time has come when trade unionists must use the parliamentary machine that in the past has used them.