Toby Hill
Toby Hill became a waterside worker in 1938 and in 1942 was elected as national secretary of the Waterside Workers’ Union. In February 1944 another militant, Jock Barnes from Auckland, was elected the union’s national president.
Barnes and Hill were denounced by the press, politicians and employers as ‘wreckers’, ‘dictators’ and ‘instruments of communist policy’.
The defeat of the Watersiders Union in the 1951 lockout led to Hill being blacklisted by employers in Wellington. He found it difficult to get regular work being hounded from job to job.
Hill resurrected his union career in the 1960s. He became secretary of several unions, including the Federated Cooks and Stewards’ Union of New Zealand. He was president of the Wellington Trades Council from 1967 to 1977.
One of the last disputes Toby Hill was involved in was in 1976, when the maritime unions prevented the United States nuclear warship Truxtun from berthing in Wellington by striking. New Zealand unions had adopted a nuclear free policy, strongly supported by maritime unions taking strike action when nuclear ships visited. Toby Hill was a leader of the first such strike.
TV News Reporter: “Mr Hill. When will the unions be going back to work?”
Toby Hill: “When they get that death ship out of the harbour!”
The Lange Labour government banned nuclear warship visits in the 1980s.
New Zealand unions have backed many other international movements for peace and social justice.
A video of Toby Hill at work during the 60s and 70s can be viewed on this website.