NZHistory.net.nz, New Zealand history online - workers rights

Labour Day - a history

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Fighting for the eight-hour working day

Samuel Parnell

The 1951 waterfront dispute

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Union march in Wellington

'Black Tuesday' - the 1912 Waihi strike

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

The killing of Fred Evans

Supporters of the strikers

Countdown to confrontation - 1951 waterfront dispute

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

The Second World War saw an unprecedented expansion of government control over the lives of New Zealanders. Under the pragmatic leadership of Prime Minister Peter Fraser, the Labour government introduced military conscription, industrial manpowering and a comprehensive economic stabilisation system. It also established a Waterfront Control Commission (later the Waterfront Industry Commission) to run the wharves, which were vital to the war effort.

War on the wharves - 1951 waterfront dispute

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Idle ships during the dispute

The immediate cause of the 1951 waterfront dispute was the post-war economic situation. After years of restrictions and shortages, the economy was booming. As the cost of living soared, workers demanded higher wage increases.

In January 1951 the Arbitration Court awarded a 15% wage increase to all workers covered by the industrial arbitration system. This did not apply to waterside workers, whose employment was controlled by the Waterfront Industry Commission. The mostly British-owned shipping companies that employed the wharfies instead offered 9%, claiming that earlier waterfront wage increases should be taken into account.

Division and defeat - 1951 waterfront dispute

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Despite the scale of the 1951 dispute, the wider labour movement was not united behind the watersiders' cause. In fact, only 8% of the country's union members took part in the dispute – the other 200,000 continued working. The watersiders’ militancy had isolated them from most unionists, who were affiliated to the more moderate Federation of Labour (FOL). Fintan Patrick Walsh and other FOL leaders called on wharfies to ‘abandon their Communist-dominated misleaders’. Meanwhile, Walter Nash’s Labour Party Opposition sat uncomfortably on the fence, denouncing government repression but refusing to back either side.

Fred Evans

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Portrait of Fred Evans by Dick Scott, c1913. Evans was killed during the 1912 Waihi strike.