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Kōrero: Unions and employee organisations

Organising English labourers

Video file

Trade union ideas came to New Zealand with British immigrants who left their own country to find better working conditions. This video shows Wendy Pearse of Oxfordshire in southern England, describing how Joseph Arch organised agricultural labourers in the area and encouraged them to emigrate to New Zealand when landowners failed to pay decent wages.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Reference: Prone places and crossings [videorecording]. Director/producer Jock Phillips. Wellington: Te Papa Productions, 1997.

Permission of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Erik Olssen, Unions and employee organisations – Early unions, 1840–1880, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/video/22249/organising-english-labourers (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Erik Olssen, i tāngia i te 4 February 2010.