| Merged into | Australian Workers' Union |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1890 |
| Dissolved | 1976 |
| Headquarters | 73 Belmont Road, Tingalpa, QLD |
| Location |
|
Members | 1250 (1971) [1] |
| Affiliations | A.C.T.U., A.L.P. |
The Wool and Basil Workers' Federation of Australia was an Australian trade union which existed between 1890 and 1976. [1] It represented workers employed in scouring and carbonising wool, fellmongery, and the processing of sheep hides into basil (tanned sheepskin).
The union was first established in 1890, before achieving federal registration in 1912, as the Amalgamated Fellmongers, Woolsorters and Woolscourers' Union of Australia. [1] [2] In 1918, the union changed its name to its final form. [2]
John Dacey, a Sydney coachmaker and Member for Botany, where the fellmongering industry was concentrated, helped to organise the Wool and Basil Workers' Union in Sydney. [3] The South Australian trade union leader and later politician Theo Nicholls served as part-time secretary of the union in South Australia, and was active in its organisation. [4]
The Wool and Basil Workers Union was involved in a demarcation dispute with the Australian Textile Workers' Union in 1913 over work done at Botany woollen mills. [5] The dispute was settled following arbitration by the Labour Council. [6]
The Wool and Basil Workers' Union merged with the Australian Workers' Union in 1976. [2]
The Australian labour movement began in the early 19th century and since the late 19th century has included industrial and political wings. Trade unions in Australia may be organised on the basis of craft unionism, general unionism, or industrial unionism. Almost all unions in Australia are affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), many of which have undergone a significant process of amalgamations, especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The leadership and membership of unions hold and have at other times held a wide range of political views, including communist, socialist and right-wing views.
The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exercised an outsized influence on the Australian Trade Union movement and on the Australian Labor Party throughout its history.
The 1890 Australian maritime dispute was an industrial dispute that began on 15 August 1890 when the Mercantile Marine Officers' Association directed its members to give 24 hours notice to their employers after negotiations broke down with the Steamship Owners' Association of Victoria over longstanding pay and conditions claims. Industrial action quickly spread to seamen, wharf labourers, then gas stockers. Coal miners from Newcastle, Broken Hill, and even New Zealand were locked out after refusing to dig coal for non-union operated vessels. By September 1890, 28,500 workers were on strike.
The Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) is a representative, an advocacy group, or peak body, of Queensland trade union organisations, also known as a labour council, in the Queensland, Australia. As of 2020, 26 unions and 13 regional branches were affiliated with the QCU. The QCU represents unions covering around 350,000 Queensland workers. It is affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). Its offices are located in the suburb of South Brisbane, Queensland. As a peak body for the Queensland trade unions, the objective of the QCU is to achieve industrial, social and political justice for Queensland workers. The management structure of the QCU is made up of a committee of management and an executive of representatives comprised from affiliated unions.
The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes.
The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union (FSPDU) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1900 and 1993. It represented labourers in the shipbuilding industry, covering "mostly work associated with chipping, painting, scrubbing [and] cleaning [ships], working in every size of tanks, cleaning boilers, docking and undocking vessels, and rigging work".
Sir George Stephenson Beeby KBE was an Australian politician, judge and author. He was one of the founders of the Labor Party in New South Wales, and represented the party in state parliament from 1907 to 1912. He fell out with the party and later served as an independent, a Nationalist, and a Progressive. He left parliament in 1920 to join the state arbitration court, and in 1926 was appointed to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. He was Chief Judge from 1939 until his retirement in 1941.
The Golden Fleece, originally known as Shearing at Newstead, is an 1894 painting by the Australian artist Tom Roberts. The painting depicts sheep shearers plying their trade in a timber shearing shed at Newstead North, a sheep station near Inverell on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. The same shed is depicted in another of Roberts' works, Shearing Shed, Newstead (1894).
Hugh Hart Lusk was New Zealand writer active in his home country, as well as Australia and America, during the late 19th century and early 20th century. He wrote books and articles on progressive social and political issues, in addition to works of fiction. In the mid-1870s he was briefly a member of parliament for an electorate in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. Lusk also worked as a solicitor and barrister, but in 1894 he was struck off the New South Wales roll of barristers for financial misconduct. His 1899 novel, Eureka, is an early example of Australian science-fiction.
Firemen and Deckhands' Union of New South Wales (FDU) was an Australian trade union existing between 1901 and 1993. The union covered deckhands employed on ferries, tugs, launches, lighters and hoppers, as well as enginemen, wharf hands, turnstill hands, change hands, firemen, motorboat coxmen and assistants. The FDU operated a closed shop, with all labour in the industry provided to employers through the union.
Marine Motor Drivers and Coxswains' Union of New South Wales was an Australian trade union existing between 1912 and 1967. The union represented workers employed as linesmen, coxswains, and driving motor boats carrying cargo or passengers.
Marine Cooks, Bakers and Butchers' Association of Australasia was an Australian trade union. It was formed in Melbourne in August 1907 as a breakaway group from the Federated Stewards and Cooks' Union of Australia and was registered under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904 in January 1908 and affiliated with the Trades and Labour Council in April 1908. The Association represented workers employed as cooks, bakers, butchers and other food preparation roles aboard ships in Australia and New Zealand. In November 1908 Mr Justice Higgins issued a judgement on rates of pay and hours for marine cooks in a case involving the Association and the Commonwealth Steamship Owners' Association. The Association moved its Head Office moved from Melbourne to Sydney in January 1915.
The Queensland Shearers Union was one of the first Australian unions, founded in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The union was instrumental in the development of the 1891 Australian shearers' strike, seen today as a key development in the Australian labour movement. Together with other unions the Queensland Shearers Union was the genesis of the Australian Workers' Union.
John Rowland Dacey was an Irish-born Australian politician. He moved to Victoria, Australia, with his mother after his father died. Eventually orphaned, Dacey moved to Sydney with his wife and began working as a coachmaker. He began his involvement in politics with an election to local council then moved to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 24 June 1895 to his death on 11 April 1912, serving as Treasurer in his final two years.
After the 1890 Australian maritime dispute and the 1891 Australian shearers' strike both of which were long, drawn out affairs in which trade unions were defeated, running out of funds, actions by increasingly militant and desperate unions led up to perhaps the most violent shearers' strike, in 1894.
The Federated Moulders' (Metals) Union of Australia (FMMUA) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1899 and 1983. It represented moulders – skilled tradesmen who fabricated the moulds for casting metal products in foundries. In spite of only organising within a single skilled occupation, which kept total membership low, the vital position of moulders in major industries such as mining, manufacturing and the railways, ensured that the union remained industrially powerful with a reputation for being highly militant.
The Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia (WWF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1902 to 1993. After a period of negotiations between other Australian maritime unions, it was federated in 1902 and first federally registered in 1907; its first general president was Billy Hughes.
The Dalfram dispute of 1938 was a political industrial dispute at Port Kembla, New South Wales, protesting the export of pig iron from Australia to Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It became famous for providing the nickname of Pig Iron Bob to Attorney General Robert Menzies, later to serve as Prime Minister.
The Pulp and Paper Workers Federation of Australia (PPWF) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1913 and 1991. The PPWF represented workers in the pulp and paper industry.
The Australian Government Workers Association was an Australian trade union representing workers employed by state and federal governments, despite its name based only in South Australia.
