For whom the Bell tolls

As the Federation of Labour refused to support the Wellington Waterside Workers' Union in their industrial action during the 1951 waterfront dispute, a break-away union was formed called the Wellington Maritime Cargo Workers Union in an attempt to break the impass and to get goods moving again through the ports. This pamphlet, likely produced by an underground press of the Wellington Waterside Workers' Union, makes disparaging remarks about Arthur Kingsley Bell who was elected the President of the Wellington Maritime Cargo Workers Union. Following the collapse of the lock-out on 15 July 1951, the two unions continued to operate side-by-side for many years with considerable animosity between them. Men operated in different work gangs, ate in seperate mess-halls and drank in different pubs depending on which of the two unions they were affiliated to.