The trade union battler

Harriet Russell Morison was a battler for unions, for women’s rights and even to clear her own name.
She set up the first union of female workers in 1889, the Tailoresses ‘ Union of New Zealand - beginning a legacy of unions helping to fight for the rights of women badly used in the workplace.
Born in Ireland to James and Margaret in 1862, she followed in her father’s footsteps. He was a master tailor.
She was about five when her family came to New Zealand and her father set up shop in Dunedin.
As a tailoress herself, she became concerned about the rights of working women.
In 1889, she became the first vice president of the Tailoresses' Union created after the sweating scandal - where a royal commission looked into long work hours for poor pay. She also took on the role of secretary shortly after.
She was known, despite being a tiny woman, for her boundless energy and commitment, helping to raise wages and improve conditions by creating an industry standard. She also helped set up similar operations in other parts of the country.
She tried to set up a similar association for domestic staff, a convalescent home for clothing workers, edited the Working Woman’s corner in the Globe newspapers and for years was an official visitor at the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum.
A staunch Christian, she believed that the unions, as a means to achieve equality, were consistent with her beliefs.
Among those beliefs was the right to vote, in part to counteract the evils of alcohol. She was a founding member of the Women’s Franchise League in Dunedin, the first one in New Zealand.
The signatures of many suffrage petitions were due to her tireless work.
But in 1896, she suddenly left the union she helped found after accusations of embezzling. Two picnics she had planned were a disaster and when she planned a further event to clear debts and raise funds, she failed to keep a proper account.
Morison was never charged and was probably wrongly accused. But it ended with her resignation from the union.
She then became an inspector of factories in the South Island but was quickly considered an inappropriate choice - apparently because of her zeal. She was removed from the position and put in charge of a labour bureau for domestic workers.
Morison resented much about her job, especially that she could not do inspections by herself but needed a male inspector with her. Repeated requests that a female inspector was needed were spurned.
She was suspended for supposedly falsifying claims about the employment of servants and an inquiry was to be held but the Prime Minister William Massey stopped it.
None of it stopped her fighting. She applied for a salary increase and continued to work for women’s rights. But in 1921 she resigned from public service when the Department of Labour closed the women’s branches and made her and other women redundant.
Nothing they had done or said stopped her fight or her spirit. She had never married, her work was her whole life.
She died at her home in Auckland on August 19, 1925. She was cremated and a plaque put on a wall of remembrance at Waikumete Cemetery.
She is also part of the Kate Sheppard National Memorial statue in Christchurch along with Kate Sheppard, Helen Nicol, Ada Wells, Meri Te Tai Mangakahia and Amey Daldy, opened in 1993.