Five months without work, scant food and the whole nation against you... Katy Gosset hears a first-hand account of the 1951 Waterfront Dispute.

Five months without work, scant food and the whole nation against you... Katy Gosset hears a first-hand account of the long battle that was the 1951 Waterfront Dispute.

It was 151 days, a long 151 days and some men who lived through it will never forget it...

Baden Norris is one of them.

"It was my blackest period of my life because I had no money, or very little. I had a daughter was in hospital with melanoma. You couldn't get another job. You'd be pretty unpopular if you did."

So how did it all begin?

Baden describes himself as "Lyttelton material", born and bred in the little port town like his father, his grandfather and great-grandfather before him.

"It was the centre of the universe when I was a child. I never wanted to be anywhere else."

He worked in a factory at 13, went to sea at 15 and then, in his 20s, being "Lyttelton material" led him to work on the wharves.

Being a watersider wasn't an aspiration, as such, but, by then Baden was married, with a child, and money had become more important.

And on the waterfront, a man could make good money, not because the job was so well paid, but because there was plenty of overtime.

It was also a place where Baden found camaraderie among like-minded types who shared his love of the sea.

"Companionship.. there was an awful variety of men on the waterfront interesting backgrounds, particularly of maritime worlds. You almost joined a club."

But trouble was brewing on the wharves.

Strike or Lockout?

The union movement had become divided. By 1951 the waterfront workers supported the Trade Union Congress, a group that had splintered away from the main union, the Federation of Labour.

New Zealand was emerging from the Second World War and the Government offered a wage increase to workers.

Except it wasn't across the board.

Baden Norris said wharfies had to apply to a separate tribunal for the pay hike and it was turned down, on the basis that the workers were already well paid.

But he said this was only because they worked so many overtime hours.

"So said "We will refuse overtime until we get some satisfaction" and, of course, that's how it all started."

But their employers responded that, if the men would not work overtime, they couldn't work at all.

The ship owners, and later the Government, called the dispute a strike but, to the workers, it was a lockout.

A State of Emergency

On February 22, 1951, the Prime Minister, Sidney Holland, announced a State of Emergency…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details