Vale Bill Whiley

Date: 06 August 2004

It is with great sadness that the Miners Union announces the death of outstanding
trade union and community activist Bill Whiley who died last night aged 76,
after a brave battle with the asbestos related disease, mesothelioma.

Towards the end of July Bill joined a unique band of activists to be awarded
Life Membership by the South Coast Labour Council.

Bill traced his working class activism back to the 1949 national coal strike
which he supported as a young railway worker out in the bush. In 1950 he got a
job in the Broken Hill mines and thus began a life as a miner and a committed
socialist that brought Bill into the Communist Party of Australia. Along with
his good mate and mentor Bill Flynn, Bill Whiley was the last Communist
Councillor elected in Broken Hill.

In the mid-1970s Bill began his life as a coalminer, at Coalcliff. He went on
to become Lodge President and was elected to the Southern District Board of
Management. In retirement Bill served as the CFMEU Mining and Energy
Division's National Returning Officer.

Bill was also heavily involved in community campaigns and stood on an
Independent ticket with well known unionist and environmentalist Jack Mundey for the NSW Upper House.

Bill's association with the militant South Coast Labour Council goes back to
the 1970s. Since then, he has been involved in every significant industrial and
political campaign in the Illawarra.

His retirement from the coal industry in August 1987 only meant one thing for
Bill - more time to spend on industrial and community campaigns. For the past
few years, Bill Whiley has been Secretary of the NSW Retired Mineworkers
Association and at the time of his death he was Secretary of the NSW Combined
Pensioners and Superannuants Association, in which he played a leading role in
the campaign to protect Medicare.

Bill is survived by his three children, Gregor, Andrew and Lyn.

- Paddy Gorman

For further information

Contact:	Arthur Rorris
Union:	South Coast Labour Council
Phone:	0424 292888
Contact Mobile:	0409 223029

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