Confrontation '51: The 1951 Waterfront Dispute

From Inside Front Cover:

The dispute still arouses emotions and prejudices in most New Zealander's hearts, and its reverberations can still be felt by all those concerned with industrial relations in New Zealand. In 1950, the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Union was one of the most powerful and successful unions in the country. Adopting a more militant attitude to labour relations than that chosen by the Federation of Labour of the time, it withdrew and formed the Trade Union Congress, bringing many other unions with it. The union's challenge to the National government of the day over pay claims and the principle of direct negotiation with employees resulted in a bitter confrontation between a determined union and an even more determined Government.

Both sides of the dispute adopted attitudes from which it became increasingly difficult to withdraw as the dispute became bitter and protracted. The impasse was not helped by emotional accusations of subversion on the Government's part, or by the one-sided attitude of the press. The waterfront workers, isolated and disparaged by most other members of the community, established among themselves an esprit de corps which saw them through the 151 days of increasing hardship before finally the sheer weight of numbers and political power of their opponents forced them to capitulate.

Dr. Michale Bassett's study is a serious, scholarly, and absorbing treatise on the use and misuse of power in a young democracy.