Michele O'Neil is an Australian

trade unionist 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 ...

and president of 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 ...

(ACTU) since 2018.

Union career

O'Neil was previously the Branch and National Secretary of the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA).

Union movement

In 2004, she told union members to consider cutting ties 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 ...

(ALP) over tariff cuts in the clothing, footwear and textiles industries. O'Neil spoke in favour of scrapping boat turn-backs in 2015 when a delegate at the Labor party conference. In 2018, O'Neil was elected president of the ACTU.

Personal life

Born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, O’Neil is the youngest of five daughters. Her mother left school at 13 to work in a

tannery Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

in Melbourne and worked as a waitress, and in various other casual jobs while raising five daughters. O'Neil's father served in the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, before serving as a public servant and briefly as an

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL) administrator.

References

Australian council of Trade Unions Elected Officers
Living people Trade unionists from Melbourne Year of birth missing (living people) {{Australia-bio-stub