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New Zealand Workers on Screen: Part 2 – Industrial Disputes and Trade Union History

    Russell Campbell, Adjunct Professor of Film at VUW and LHP Treasurer has compiled this incredibly comprehensive list of films and TV programmes featuring New Zealanders at work. Some are available to view online on youtube.com and NZ on Screen, the rest can reviewed at the medialibrary at Nga Taonga Sound & Vision in Wellington (www.ngataonga.org.nz).

    The first part of the New Zealand Workers on Screen filmography is available here.

    Still of timber workers

    Industrial disputes and trade union history

    FIGHTING BACK (1949) Nga Taonga F7420
    The 1949 Auckland carpenters’ strike.

    NAVY MINERS (1951)
    Navy personnel maintain coal production on the West Coast during the 1951 miners’ strike.
    View at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QgzeFNbGFg

    PERSONAL RECORD. [SAILORS WORK THE WHARVES – 1951 LOCKOUT] (1951) Nga Taonga F2607
    The 1951 waterfront lockout – sailors working the wharves.

    [WATERFRONT LOCKOUT 1951] (1951) Nga Taonga F10461
    The 1951 waterfront lockout – actuality footage.

    THE 1951 WATERFRONT LOCKOUT AND OTHER UNION STRUGGLES (c1952) Nga Taonga F23190
    Union activity in Auckland 1949-52.

    GALLERY – POST OFFICE GO SLOW (1970)
    A long-running postal workers’ industrial dispute is resolved through on-air mediation.
    View at http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/gallery—post-office-go-slow-1970

    PERSONAL RECORD – PIERCE, RUSSELL. [FOL MASS RALLY FROM INTER ISLAND TERMINAL -1976] (1976) Nga Taonga F101804 Federation of Labour mass rally march including Seamen’s Union, Drivers Union and Harbour Board Workers contingents.

    LOCKOUT (1976)
    The 1951 waterfront lockout from the point of view of watersiders’ leader Jock Barnes.

    THE HAMMER AND THE ANVIL (1980) Nga Taonga F6407
    A survey history of working people and the trade union movement in NZ.

    A CENTURY OF STRUGGLE (1981) Nga Taonga F8857
    The hundred-year history of the NZ Seamen’s Union.

    WILDCAT (1981) Nga Taonga F958
    The 1977 Bay of Plenty timberworkers’ strike for democracy in their union.
    Available from Filmshop – http://www.filmshop.co.nz/products-page/?product_search=wildcat

    THE BRIDGE (1982) Nga Taonga F5184
    The 1978-80 Mangere Bridge construction workers’ lockout.

    EVEN DOGS ARE GIVEN BONES (1982)
    The sit-in for redundancy pay by women workers at the Rixen clothing factory in Levin.

    KINLEITH ’80 (1982) Nga Taonga F5560
    The 1980 strike at the Kinleith Pulp and Paper Mill.

    THE HATRED CAMPAIGN (1985) Nga Taonga F24760
    The killing of caretaker Ernie Abbott by a bombing at Wellington Trades Hall is examined in the context of anti-union rhetoric from the National Government.
    Available from Filmshop – http://www.filmshop.co.nz/products-page/?product_search=hatred+campaign

    IN OUR OWN TIME – UNEMPLOYED RESPOND TO UNEMPLOYMENT (988) Nga Taonga F6766

    SHATTERED DREAMS (1990) Nga Taonga F21878
    The 1951 waterfront lockout.

    1951 (2001) Nga Taonga F50539
    The 1951 waterfront lockout.
    View at http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/1951-2001

    SYD JACKSON – LIFE AND TIMES OF A FULLY FLEDGED ACTIVIST (2003) Nga Taonga F56053
    Syd Jackson’s activism including work as Secretary of the Northern Clerical Workers’ Union.
    View at http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/syd-jackson-life-and-times-of-a-fully-fledged-activist-2003

    A CIVILISED SOCIETY (2008) Nga Taonga F108218
    Teacher unions battle attempts to impose bulk funding and individual employment contracts.
    View at http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/a-civilised-society-2006

    Note also

    HUNGRY MILES (1955) Nga Taonga F110748
    History of the industrial conflicts of the Waterside Workers’ Federation (Australia)