Kōrero: Strikes and labour disputes

The all-powerful figure of a Blackball miner with his helmet, pick-axe and bowyangs (ties around trouser legs) towers over Prime Minister Joseph Ward (kneeling, centre front). The success of the 1908 Blackball miners’ strike encouraged the individual miners’ unions to form a strong nationwide federation. This was joined by other unions such as the watersiders and labourers, and became the New Zealand Federation of Labour, known as the ‘Red Fed’. For some years the Red Fed unions were able to negotiate significant improvements to their working conditions, creating resentment among other sections of society.