The Vehicle Builders' Employees' Federation of Australia (VBEF) was an Australian

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

which existed between 1863 and 1993. It was an

industrial union Industrial unionism is a trade union organising method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in ba ...

which represented all production employees in the

vehicle industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, repairing, and modification of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by ...

and automotive parts manufacturing industry.

History

In the late nineteenth century a number of small unions were formed in the Australian colonies to represent skilled

coachbuilder A coachbuilder manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. The trade of producing coachwork began with bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. Today it includes custom automobiles, buses, Coach (bus), motor coaches, and passenger car (rai ...

s in the horse-drawn coach building industry. In NSW a union of coachbuilders was formed in Bathurst in 1863, while a South Australian union was formed in the 1880s, before folding in 1896 due to lack of members. In 1917 the Australian Coach, Motor Car, Tram Car, Waggon Builders, Wheelwrights' and Rolling Stock Makers' Employees' Federation was registered federally. During the 1920s the union's membership was transformed as motor cars replaced coaches and carriages, and

assembly line An assembly line, often called ''progressive assembly'', is a manufacturing process where the unfinished product moves in a direct line from workstation to workstation, with parts added in sequence until the final product is completed. By mechan ...

methods of production replaced trade-qualified coachbuilders with unskilled or semi-skilled assembly workers. In 1930 it reregistered under the even more cumbersome name of the Australian Coach, Motor Car, Tram Car, Waggon Builders, Wheelwrights' and Air Craft Rolling Stock Makers' Employees’ Federation. In 1938 it changed its name to the much simpler Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation. The union grew rapidly after WWII, due to the growth in the Australian car industry, reaching approximately 30,000 members by the early 1960s. Many of these new members were recent migrants from Europe, termed

New Australians New Australians were non-British migrants to Australia who arrived in the wave of immigration following World War II. The term initially referred to newly arrived immigrants, generally refugees, who were expected to eventually become mainstream ...

, who could easily find unskilled work in the large car assembly plants despite limited English. In 1993 the VBEF merged with the Metals and Engineering Workers Union to form the

Automotive Metals & Engineering Union The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), officially registered as the Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing, and Kindred Industries Union, is an Australian trade union. The AMWU represents a broad range of workers in the manu ...

References

{{Reflist Defunct trade unions of Australia Vehicle industry trade unions 1863 establishments in Australia Industrial unions Trade unions established in 1863 Trade unions disestablished in 1993 Automotive industry in Australia