The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
's largest and oldest
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
s. It traces its origins to unions founded in the
pastoral
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...
and
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exercised an outsized influence on the Australian trade union movement and on the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
throughout its history.
The AWU is one of the most powerful unions in the
Labor Right
The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more economically conservative and, in some cases, more socially conservative. The Labor ...
faction of the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
.
Structure
The AWU is a national union made up of state branches. Each AWU member belongs to one of six geographic branches. Every four years AWU members elect branch and national officials: National President, the National Secretary, and the National Assistant Secretary. They also elect the National Executive and the Branch Executives which act as the Board of Directors for the union.
The AWU's rules are registered with
Fair Work Australia
The Fair Work Commission (FWC), until 2013 known as Fair Work Australia (FWA), is the Australian industrial relations tribunal created by the ''Fair Work Act 2009'' as part of the Rudd Government's reforms to industrial relations in Australi ...
and its internal elections are conducted by the
Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums.
Responsibilities
The AEC's main responsibility is to ...
.
The AWU is affiliated with the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
,
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions and eight trades and la ...
, the
International Metalworkers' Federation
The International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) was a global union federation of metalworkers' trade unions, founded in Zürich, Switzerland in August 1893. the IMF had more than 200 member organisations in 100 countries, representing a combine ...
, the
International Union of Foodworkers
The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is a global union federation of trade unions with members in a variety of industries, many of which relate to food processi ...
and the
International Transport Workers Federation
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic global union federation of transport workers' trade unions, founded in 1896. In 2017 the ITF had 677 member organizations in 149 countries, representing a combined membership o ...
. The current AWU National President is Marina Williams, and the National Secretary is Daniel Walton.
Coverage
The AWU has broad coverage over, amongst others, the following industries:
* Administrative and Support Services
* Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing
* Arts and Recreation Services
* Construction
* Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services
* Manufacturing
* Mining
* Public Administration and Safety
History
![StateLibQld 1 393517 Fallon House in Bundaberg, 1953](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/StateLibQld_1_393517_Fallon_House_in_Bundaberg%2C_1953.jpg)
The AWU grew from a number of earlier unions, notably the
Australasian Shearers' Union, founded by
William Spence
William Guthrie Spence (7 August 1846 – 13 December 1926), was an Australian trade union leader and politician, played a leading role in the formation of both Australia's largest union, the Australian Workers' Union, and the Australian Labor ...
,
Alexander Poynton
Alexander Poynton OBE (8 August 1853 – 9 January 1935) was an Australian politician. He held ministerial office under Prime Minister Billy Hughes, serving as Treasurer (1916–1917), Minister for Home and Territories (1920–1921), and Pos ...
(OBE, an inaugural member of the Australian House of Representatives), brother Charles Poynton, and
David Temple in
Creswick
Creswick is a town in west-central Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometres north of Ballarat and 122 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, in the Shire of Hepburn. It is 430 metres above sea level. At the 2016 census, Creswick had a populatio ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
in 1886.
[Smith, Bruce A. created 20 April 2001, last modified 6 August 2010]
Trade Union Entry: Australian Shearers Union
Australian Trade Union Archives
Australian Trade Union Archives is a website intended to be an online resource for archived and present day material related to industrial organisations in Australia.
It went online in 2002.
It is a joint project of the Australian Science and Tec ...
. Retrieved 11 November 2011. This union joined with shearers' unions in
Bourke and
Wagga in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
to form the
Amalgamated Shearers Union of Australasia in 1887.
[Smith, Bruce A. created 20 April 2001, last modified 6 August 2010]
Trade Union Entry: Amalgamated Shearers Union of Australia
Australian Trade Union Archives. Retrieved 11 November 2011. In 1894 this union amalgamated with the
General Labourers Union, which had formed in 1891, to form the Australian Workers' Union.
[Smith, Bruce A. created 20 April 2001, last modified 6 August 2010]
Trade Union Entry: General Labourers Union of Australasia
Australian Trade Union Archives. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
The
Queensland Shearers Union
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 i ...
, formed in 1887, and the
Queensland Workers Union merged in 1891 to form the
Amalgamated Workers Union of Queensland. In 1904 the AWUQ amalgamated with the AWU, to form a union with a combined membership of 34,000.
The AWU later absorbed a number of other unions in the pastoral, mining and timber industries notably the
Amalgamated Workers Association of Queensland in 1913, and the
Federated Mining Employees Association of Australia in 1917. Since these industries were the principal sources of Australia's wealth in the 19th century, the AWU soon became Australia's largest and most powerful union.
The defeat of the great
1891 shearers' strike and the
1890 Maritime strike led the AWU to reject direct action, and it has been a force for moderation in the Australian union movement ever since. It was a firm opponent of the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines genera ...
, the
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been i ...
, NSW Premier
Jack Lang and other radical forces in the Australian labour movement. For many years
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
s were banned from AWU membership. In the 1930s the Communist Party launched a rival Pastoral Workers Industrial Union, but this failed to break the AWU's grip on its membership.
The Northern Territory branch of the AWU was a central faction in the most recent worker's rebellion in Australia, the
Darwin Rebellion in 1912 - 1918.
When the trade unions formed the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
following the defeat of the 1890s strikes, the AWU became a powerful influence in the party, particularly in
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
and
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
, and to a lesser extent in the other states. Labor state governments were heavily influenced by AWU leaders such as
Edward Grayndler,
Tom Dougherty and NSW AWU Secretary
Charlie Oliver. Labor was in government in Queensland from 1915 to 1929 and from 1932 to 1957, and the AWU was able to exert considerable political influence through long-serving premiers such as
William Forgan Smith
William Forgan Smith (15 April 188725 September 1953) was an Australian politician. He served as Premier of the state of Queensland from 1932 to 1942. He came to dominate politics in the state during the 1930s, and his populism, firm leadership ...
and
Ned Hanlon.
The federation of the Australian colonies in 1901 led to the establishment of the
Australian Arbitration system. The AWU strongly supported arbitration as a mechanism of resolving industrial disputes without resorting to strike action. The Pastoral Industry Award, negotiated by the AWU, was the first federal award granted by the
Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration
The Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration was an Australian court that operated from 1904 to 1956 with jurisdiction to hear and arbitrate interstate industrial disputes, and to make awards. It also had the judicial functions of i ...
. The AWU maintained its registration under state industrial systems and continues to participate in many state awards.
During the years since federation that the Australian industrial relations system has been dominated by the Court and its successors, the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and the
Australian Industrial Relations Commission
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), known from 1956 to 1973 as the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and from 1973 to 1988 as the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, was a tribunal with powers ...
, the AWU and its members were among that system's principal beneficiaries. The AWU remains a strong advocate of arbitration in the union movement. The AWU was not affiliated with the
Australian Council of Trade Unions
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions and eight trades and la ...
for many years, preferring to maintain its independent relationship with the arbitration system.
With the shift in employment from the pastoral industries to the urban manufacturing and service sectors, the AWU's political influence and power declined as the pastoral areas became less significant in terms of employee numbers. This shift led to many rural electorate areas that were influenced by the AWU and workers falling to the conservative side of politics and in particular the
National Party. The split in the Queensland ALP in 1957, which resulted in Labor being in opposition for 32 years, deprived the AWU of its greatest area of influence, although it remained influential in the long-serving (1941–65 and 1976–88) New South Wales Labor governments.
In 1993 the AWU amalgamated with the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Employees (itself an amalgamation of the
Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia
The Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia (FIA) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1911 and 1991. It represented labourers and semi-skilled workers employed in the steel industry and ironworking, and later also the che ...
and the
Australasian Society of Engineers) to form the AWU-FIMEE Amalgamated Union. In 1995 the union reverted to using the name Australian Workers' Union.
In recent years the AWU has sought to modernise and to broaden its membership beyond its declining traditional base. Today it represents workers in the metals, aviation, oil and gas, mining, construction, food processing and retail industries, as well as its traditional base in the pastoral and mining areas. Its expansion into new areas has brought the AWU into conflict with some other unions, particularly the
National Union of Workers
The National Union of Workers was an Australian trade union formed in 1989.
History
The National Union of Workers of Australia was formed by a progressive amalgamation of unions from 1989 onwards in a time when all Australian unions were merging ...
and the
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU, though most commonly still referred to as CFMEU) is Australia's main trade union in construction, forestry, maritime, mining, energy, textile, clothing and footwear producti ...
.
For many years the AWU published two newspapers, ''
The Australian Worker
''The Australian Worker'' was a newspaper produced in Sydney, New South Wales for the Australian Workers' Union. It was published from 1890 to 1950.
History
The newspaper had its origin in ''The Hummer'', "Official organ of the Associated Ri ...
'' in New South Wales and ''The Worker'' (founded in 1890) in Brisbane. Under the editorship of
Henry Boote from 1916 to 1943 they were among the most influential union newspapers in Australia. The two papers were merged in 1974 and today ''The Australian Worker'' is published in a magazine format in association with
Australian Consolidated Press
Are Media is an Australian media company that was formed after the 2020 purchase of the assets of Bauer Media Australia, which had in turn acquired the assets of Pacific Magazines, AP Magazines and Australian Consolidated Press during the 201 ...
.
On 24 October 2017 the unions offices in Sydney and Melbourne were raided by the
Australian Federal Police. The raids were on behalf of the
Registered Organisations Commission
The Registered Organisations Commission (ROC) is an independent, statutory authority of the Australian Government, responsible for the regulation and education of registered organisations (that is, trade unions and employer organisations) in Aust ...
(ROC).
Support for White Australia policy
Melbourne Trades Hall
Victorian Trades Hall is the headquarters of the Victorian Trades Hall Council. It is located on the corner of Lygon Street and Victoria Street, just north of the Melbourne central business district, in the suburb of Carlton, Melbourne, Vict ...
was opened in 1859 with
Trades and Labour Council A labour council, trades council or industrial council is an association of labour unions or union branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, region, or provincial or ...
s and
Trades Halls opening in all cities and most regional towns in the following forty years. During the 1880s
Trade unions
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
developed among
shearers,
miner
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...
s, and
stevedore
A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes.
After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number ...
s (wharf workers), but soon spread to cover almost all
blue-collar
A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and powe ...
jobs. Shortages of labour led to high wages for a prosperous skilled working class, whose unions demanded and got an
eight-hour day
The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses.
An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 16 ...
and other benefits unheard of in Europe.
![Melbourne eight hour day march-c1900](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Melbourne_eight_hour_day_march-c1900.jpg)
Australia gained a reputation as "the working man's paradise." Some employers tried to undercut the unions by importing Chinese labour. This produced a reaction which led to all the colonies restricting Chinese and other Asian immigration. This was the foundation of the
White Australia Policy
The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...
. The "Australian compact", based around centralised industrial arbitration, a degree of government assistance particularly for primary industries, and White Australia, was to continue for many years before gradually dissolving in the second half of the 20th century.
The growth of the sugar industry in Queensland in the 1870s led to searching for labourers prepared to work in a tropical environment. During this time, thousands of "
Kanakas
Kanakas were workers (a mix of voluntary and involuntary) from various Pacific Islands employed in British colonies, such as British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Queensland (Australia) in the 19t ...
" (Pacific Islanders) were brought into Australia as
indentured workers
Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, ...
.
This and related practices of bringing in non-white labour to be cheaply employed was commonly termed "
blackbirding
Blackbirding involves the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The term has been most commonly applied to the large-scale taking of people in ...
" and refers to the recruitment of people through trickery and kidnappings to work on plantations, particularly the
sugar cane plantations of Queensland (Australia) and
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
.
In the 1870s and 1880s, the growing
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
movement began a series of protests against foreign labour. Their arguments were that Asians and Chinese took jobs away from white men, worked for "substandard" wages, lowered working conditions and refused unionisation.
Objections to these arguments came largely from wealthy land owners in rural areas.
It was argued that without Asiatics to work in the tropical areas of the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
and Queensland, the area would have to be abandoned.
Despite these objections to restricting immigration, between 1875 and 1888 all Australian colonies enacted legislation which excluded all further Chinese immigration.
Asian immigrants already residing in the Australian colonies were not expelled and retained the same rights as their Anglo and Southern compatriots.
Agreements were made to further increase these restrictions in 1895 following an Inter-colonial Premier's Conference where all colonies agreed to extend entry restrictions to all
non-white races. However, in attempting to enact this legislation, the Governors of New South Wales, South Australia and
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
reserved the bills, due to a treaty with
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, and they did not become law. Instead, the Natal Act of 1897 was introduced, restricting "undesirable persons" rather than any specific race.
The British government in London was not pleased with legislation that discriminated against certain subjects of its Empire, but decided not to disallow the laws that were passed. Colonial Secretary
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the Cons ...
explained in 1897:
We quite sympathise with the determination...of these colonies...that there should not be an influx of people alien in civilisation, alien in religion, alien in customs, whose influx, moreover, would seriously interfere with the legitimate rights of the existing labouring population.[Speech to Colonial Conference of 1897, quoted in J. Holland Rose et al., eds. ''The Cambridge History of the British Empire: Volume VII: Part I: Australia'' (1933) p 411]
full text
/ref>
The
Barton Government which came to power following the first elections to the Commonwealth parliament in 1901 was formed by the
Protectionist Party with the support of the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
. The support of the Labor Party was contingent upon restricting non-white immigration, reflecting the attitudes of the Australian Workers Union and other labour organisations at the time, upon whose support the Labor Party was founded.
National Secretaries of the AWU
*
David Temple 1886-94
*
William Spence
William Guthrie Spence (7 August 1846 – 13 December 1926), was an Australian trade union leader and politician, played a leading role in the formation of both Australia's largest union, the Australian Workers' Union, and the Australian Labor ...
1894-1898
*
Arthur Rae
Arthur Edward George Rae (14 March 1860 – 25 November 1943) was a New Zealand-born Australian politician. Born in Christchurch to Charles and Ann Rae (née Beldam), he received a primary education at Blenheim before migrating to Australia in 1 ...
1898-99
*
Donald Macdonell 1899-1911
*Tom White 1911-1912
*
Edward Grayndler 1912-1941
*
Clarrie Fallon 1941-1943
*William "Beecher" Hay 1943-1944
*
Tom Dougherty 1944-1972
*Frank Mitchell 1972-1983
*Gill Barr 1983-1987
*
Errol Hodder
Errol Raymond Hodder (born 4 September 1938), former Queensland branch secretary of the Australian Workers' Union (1982-1988), general secretary of the Australian Workers' Union (1987-1991) and retired Commissioner of the Australian Industrial R ...
1987-1991
*
Michael Forshaw
Michael George Forshaw (born 11 January 1952) is an Australian politician who served as a member of the Australian Senate for the state of New South Wales from May 1994 to June 2011, representing the Australian Labor Party.
Early life and educa ...
1991-1994 (Jointly from 1993)
*Steve Harrison 1993-1997 (Jointly until 1996)
*Ian Cambridge 1994-1996 (Jointly)
*Vern Falconer 1997
*Terry Muscat 1997-2001
*
Bill Shorten
William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician currently serving as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. He previously served as leader of the opposition ...
2001-2007
*
Paul Howes
Paul Howes (born 23 August 1981) was involved in the Australian trade union movement from 1999 through 2014. His most recent position was as National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union, the youngest person to serve in that position. In ...
2007-2014
*Scott McDine 2014-2016
*Daniel Walton 2016–present
National Presidents of the AWU
*
William Spence
William Guthrie Spence (7 August 1846 – 13 December 1926), was an Australian trade union leader and politician, played a leading role in the formation of both Australia's largest union, the Australian Workers' Union, and the Australian Labor ...
1886-94
*
Arthur Rae
Arthur Edward George Rae (14 March 1860 – 25 November 1943) was a New Zealand-born Australian politician. Born in Christchurch to Charles and Ann Rae (née Beldam), he received a primary education at Blenheim before migrating to Australia in 1 ...
1895-97
*
William Spence
William Guthrie Spence (7 August 1846 – 13 December 1926), was an Australian trade union leader and politician, played a leading role in the formation of both Australia's largest union, the Australian Workers' Union, and the Australian Labor ...
1898-1916
*
Frank Lundie
Francis Walter Lundie (1 March 1866 – 13 July 1933) was an Australian trade unionist, long serving Councillor for Port Adelaide and the corporation of the city of Adelaide, board member of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Royal Zoologica ...
1917-1918
*
Arthur Blakeley 1919-24
*
John Barnes
John Charles Bryan Barnes MBE (born 7 November 1963) is a former professional football player and manager. He currently works as an author, commentator and pundit for ESPN and SuperSport. Initially a quick, skilful left winger, he moved to ce ...
1924-38
*J.C. Lamont 1938-39
*
John McNeill 1939-43
*Vic Johnson 1943-7
*Bill Nicol 1947-50
*Henry "Brahma" Davis 1950-65
*Edgar Williams 1965-82
*Alan Begg 1982-89
*
Bill Ludwig 1989-97 (Jointly from 1994)
*Bob Redmond 1994-7 (Jointly from 1994)
*Graham Roberts 1997-2001
*
Bill Ludwig 2001-2017
*Marina Williams 2017–present
See also
*
AWU affair, a scandal involving the AWU Workplace Reform Association Fund in the 1990s
*
Darwin Rebellion, a political protest in Darwin in the 1910s
References
External links
Official Website
{{Authority control
1894 establishments in Australia
Trade unions in Australia
General unions
Trade unions established in 1894