Australia: Trades Union Materials
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- Creator
- Institute of Commonwealth Studies
TitleAustralia: Trades Union Materials
Reference codeTU.AT
Date1971-
Scope and ContentLeaflets, letters, newsletters, journals, posters, stickers and pamphlets at federal and state level issued by the Administrative and Clerical Officers Association, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Amalgamated Metals, the Foundry and Shipwrights Union, the Amalgamated Metal Workers' and Shipwrights' Union, the Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union, the Australian Building Construction Employees' and Builders Labourers' Federation, the Australian Bank Employees Union, the Australian Postal and Telecommunications Union, the Australian Railways Union, the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners of Australia, the Australian Telecommunications Employees Association, the Australian Teachers' Federation, the Australian Trade Union Training Authority, the Artworkers Union, the Building Workers Industrial Union of Australia, the Cattlemen's Union of Australia, the Federated Clerks Union of Australia, the Metal Trades Federation of Unions, the National Metal Unions Campaign Committee, the Pastrycooks, Bakers, Biscuit Makers and Allied Trades Union, the Trades and Labor Council of Queensland, the Transport Workers Union of Australia, the United Workers Forum, the Unemployed Workers Union, and the Women's Trade Union Commission.
NotesBy the late nineteenth century trade union membership density in Australia was among the highest in the world and as a consequence attracted international interest from labour historians, most notably from Sidney and Beatrice Webb. By the mid 1970s over half of the workforce was unionised, a figure significantly greater than that for Britain, wherein many of Australia's principles had originated. The recognition by the union movement of the need for political represention had led to the formation of the Australian Labor Party, a British-style union-based organisation as distinct from the social democrat parties more prevalent in Europe. The relationship between the ALP and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is one of the major threads running through Australian union history, and significant material is held in this collection dealing with the Prices and Incomes Accord - the 1983 pact between the Labor Government of Bob Hawke and the unions. Other items are concerned with individual unions and particular labour disputes, including the wildcat strikes by Sydney Opera House construction workers in the late 1970s, and there are items indicating the stance of unions on single issues such as uranium mining, as well as posters and publicity material relecting on the movement itself and its history.
Conditions governing accessAccess to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment of the library.
Extent2 boxes
System of ArrangementAlphabetically by union, and then in rough chronological order.
Finding aidsItem-level descriptions are available on the library catalogue: http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/search~S17/
Related files
See also Australia: Pressure Groups Material (PG.AT) and Australia: Political Party Material (PP.AT), as well as Political Party, Trades Unions and Pressure Group Materials for other Commonwealth countries and material in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies library's main classified sequence.
Level of descriptionfonds