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QUEENSLAND

about the AWU
Proud past and big future

History of the AWU in Queensland

In colonial Australia the law of the jungle prevailed. Workers were powerless - the Masters & Servants Act gave bosses the whip hand. They could make up or change the rules as they went along – and they usually did.

Without legal or bargaining muscle workers had no power, and no choice but to take what was on offer. It was a recipe for exploitation, oppression and worse.

Workers responded by forming unions. In Queensland fledgling bush unions like the Western Workers Association, the Queensland Shearers Union and Queensland Labourers Union (all forebears of the AWU) fought hard to negotiate better conditions but it was tough going.

At first there was resistance to amalgamations but the 1891 shearers strike was to demonstrate once and for all the need to be in one big union.

The 1891 Queensland Shearing Strike ranks as the key defining moment in the history of the AWU and the Australian Labor Party.

The strike began when squatters imposed 33% cut on shearers’ wages. Strike camps were set up around towns like Barcaldine and Clermont.

Scabs were sent in to break the strike but the shearings sheds they headed for were burnt to the ground. Queensland's Colonial Government responded by sending in mounted troopers with orders to shoot low and lay them (the striking shearers) out.

The Strike committee was arrested, tried and found guilty of treason. During the trial the famous William Lane noted that the Judge didn't require a prosecutor because he assumed the role himself.

While defeated unionists declared under Barcaldine's Tree of Knowledge that they'd fight for justice by political means. And fight they did - within a decade the World's first Labor Government had assumed office.

With the exception of the years 1929-1932, Labor governed Queensland from 1915 to 1957.

In that time Labour Governments lead by Ryan, Theodore, McCormack, Forgan Smith, Cooper and Hanlon changed the face of Queensland from colonial backwater to a modern state by introducing world leading labor laws and a raft of progressive initiatives in areas like health, education, public works and state enterprises.

In these Governments the AWU was hugely influential, both directly, like when former AWU officials like Theodore and McCormack assumed key leadership roles in the Government, or indirectly when officials like Clarrie Fallon, Gerry Goding, George Pont and Joe Bukowski worked to deliver benefits to Queensland workers.

When the ALP split in 1957 it was over Premier Vince Gair's refusal to back an AWU push to increase annual leave from two to three weeks.

The First World War had a cataclysmic impact on Australia. When war was first declared a whole generation of young Australians joined up, including thousands of AWU members like Victoria Cross winner, Albert Jacka.

So many in fact there was serious talk of forming AWU Divisions to send to overseas! But as the death roll mounted (an AWU ticket was found in the mud at Pozieres) the Australian Government wanted the power to conscript men for service.

The AWU was bitterly opposed to forcing young Australians to fight in the trenches of France and Belgium.

AWU greats like Theodore and McCormack campaigned vigorously against two national conscription referendums (1916 & 1917). Australians rejected conscription at both votes, but the issue divided the nation, the ALP, whole communities and even families.

The Wall Street crash and the World Wide Great Depression caused inflicted hardship and suffering on workers and their families that today is almost unimaginable.

Unemployment skyrocketed from 5% in 1929 to over 30% in 1931. The Great Depression had an especially severe impact on mining and rural workers as prices for metals, sugar and wool plunged.

Across Queensland bands of unemployed rural workers like future AWU official and Industrial Relations Commissioner George Pont rode the rattlers looking for any work they could find.

After Labor was returned power in Queensland in 1932 the Forgan Smith Government initiated a massive public works program that saw out-of-work AWU members employed in their thousands on projects like the construction of Brisbane's Story Bridge and the massive Somerset Dam.

AWU members are the unsung heroes of the development of our great state

Day in day out for over a century its been the sweat and toil of working men and women that has built this state - quite literally! Across Queensland there's hardly a bridge, tunnel, airport, highway, dam, smelter, processing plant, mine, power station, wharf or railway that hasn't been constructed by AWU members.

From the beginning AWU members have been part of the pioneering development of industries like sugar, mining, shearing and tourism.

And today communities across Queensland couldn't function without dedication of AWU members working in hospitals and councils

For over 120 years the Australian Workers’ Union has been fighting for working Australians. When they've been threatened, when they need support, we've stood up to governments, to big business, to giant overseas corporations. We've been there, by their side. Because we believe the workers of Australia have made this country what it is, and that they deserve a fair go. For this reason the AWU will continue the fight to protect the rights of workers, across the wide breadth of industries, which our proud union represents.