Story: Ngā uniana – Māori and the union movement

Picketing Gear Meat works

Striking workers from Gear Meat freezing works in Petone picket the plant with their children – from left, Thomas Meihana with seven-month-old Selina, Glen Rainford and 12-month-old Hemi, and Malcolm McAllister with Kimiora, five months. The sign indicates they are into the sixth week of the strike in 1981.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1981/1406/30A

by Peter Avery

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Cybèle Locke, Ngā uniana – Māori and the union movement – Recession: 1970s–1990s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/22961/picketing-gear-meat-works (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Cybèle Locke, published 4 March 2010.