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Group of men in raincoats and hats holding signs facing off against men in police uniforms
Alexander Turnbull Library, PAColl-4920-3-11-02
Union march in Wellington, May 1951

The waterfront dispute of 1951 was the largest industrial confrontation in New Zealand’s history. Although it was not as violent as strikes in 1912–13, it lasted longer (151 days, from 15 February to 15 July) and involved more workers (22,000 at its peak). Fought at a time of rising Cold War tensions, it polarised politics and divided the union movement.

The waterfront occupied a strategic place in New Zealand’s export economy, which was dominated by British shipping companies. Most of the men who loaded and unloaded ships (‘wharfies’) were casual employees, with little job security; their work was physically hard, dirty, and often dangerous. Long a flashpoint for industrial conflict, the wharves had been at the heart of the country’s two biggest labour disputes prior to 1951 – in 1890 and 1913. 

The end of the Second World War triggered a wave of industrial unrest. After years of sacrifice, workers were impatient to share in post-war prosperity, and both unions and employers resented lingering wartime controls. In 1951 tensions on the waterfront erupted when the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union (NZWWU) and shipping companies disagreed over a wage increase. When the unionists declined to work overtime, the employers refused to hire them for two days, arguing an overtime ban amounted to an illegal strike. To the union this was a ‘lockout’.

With the wharves at a standstill, on 21 February the National government declared a state of emergency. Prime Minister Sidney Holland warned that New Zealand was ‘at war’ not only in Korea but also at home, where it faced a ‘menace from the enemy within’. On the 27th, army and navy personnel were sent onto the Auckland and Wellington wharves to handle cargo. Emergency regulations imposed strict censorship, gave police sweeping powers of search and arrest, and outlawed any assistance to strikers – even giving food to their families was an offence (though it was rarely enforced). 

The labour movement was far from united. The previous year the NZWWU, led by Jock Barnes and Toby Hill, had walked out of the Federation of Labour (FOL) conference to form a rival Trade Union Congress. In 1951 the wharfies’ allies – freezing workers, miners, hydro-electricity workers, and drivers – struck in solidarity, but most unionists, still aligned to the more moderate FOL, did not. The FOL’s formidable vice-president, Fintan Patrick Walsh, denounced the NZWWU’s leaders as reckless militants whose actions threatened to undermine the arbitration system. The Labour Party opposition sat uncomfortably on the fence, condemning the government’s harsh response while refusing to back either side.

Despite extreme rhetoric, the dispute was relatively peaceful, with only isolated outbreaks of violence. On 30 April, a railway bridge near Huntly was dynamited, presumably by striking coal miners, in what Holland called ‘an infamous act of terrorism’. The worst clash occurred on 1 June – dubbed ‘Bloody Friday’ – when police forcefully dispersed 1000 unionist marchers in Auckland’s Queen Street. By that time, the government had deregistered the NZWWU and recognised new, compliant unions of strike-breakers (denounced by unionists as ‘scabs’) in the main ports. Worn down by 22 weeks of struggle, the wharfies conceded defeat on 15 July.

Militant unionism was dealt a crushing blow, and many workers were blacklisted from waterfront employment for years. Holland immediately called a snap election on his government’s handling of the crisis, and on 1 September the electorate delivered the National Party a resounding victory.

Bitterness between supporters of the NZWWU and the FOL lingered for decades. Despite their defeat, for many who took part the wharfies’ loyalty card – bearing the words ‘stood loyal right through’ – was a prized badge of honour. Seventy-five years later, the 1951 dispute continues to hold a prominent place in the history and mythology of the New Zealand labour movement.

Ako | Learn

Read more about the 1951 waterfront dispute: 

Mātakitaki | Watch

Watch documentary footage of the 1951 waterfront dispute and interviews with participants:

Whakarongo | Listen

Listen to a 1968 radio documentary looking back on the 1951 waterfront dispute:

Haere ā-tinana | Attend

Take part in a community event to mark the 75th anniversary in Lyttelton.