Centenary of a great Oz union

Date: 21 August 2008

Paul Howes speaks at FIA Centenary

More than 250 people came together in the NSW Parliament House last night to pay tribute to the Federated Ironworkers' Association and to salute its iconic former leader Laurie Short - now 92 years old.

The occasion was the centenary of the union credited with holding the Australian Labor Party together during the turbulent 1950s.

Remembering everything in the centenary of a union like the Federated Ironworkers' Association (FIA), which has played such a crucial role in the life of Australia's political and industrial history, can never be easy.

The Ironworkers amazing industrial and political history is an integral part of the history not only of the entire Australian labour movement but in fact the history of the nation itself.

Union helped build heavy industrial regional centres

It is almost impossible, looking back from 2008, to accurately relive the turbulent post-war years when the FIA was caught up in the Cold War struggles and played a pivotal role in deciding which way the Australian labour movement - and its political wing - will turn.

Bitter and sometimes violent struggle for control of the union

Laurie Short, headed the anti-communist faction which wrested control of the union from the hardline Stalinist leadership. The extraordinary legal, and often physical, battles ensured the FIA was fodder for almost daily screaming newspaper headlines throughout the late 40s and early 50s.

Short was one of the pioneers of communism in Australia but rejected these ideas as the Cold War dramatically escalated inside trade unions when he chose to stand with those who were fighting to maintain the values of a free, independent and democratic labour movement.

The many academics and journalists who have documented this period have always placed the FIA smack bang at the centre of the political agenda of the time. All the historians talked of this particular union struggle as having been crucial to the post-war development of the labour movement and the post-war development of Australia's political values.

Stopped the fracturing of labour movement along sectarian lines

In turn Ducker, with Short always nearby, steered that state's labour movement away from the fracturing along sectarian lines that - as the result of The Split of 1955 - was the hallmark of industrial and political labour in other Australian states.

Delegates meet to form the union in 1908

By 1909 the FIA had branches in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.

The Federation was registered in the Commonwealth Court on 20 May 1911.

In October and November 1942 the Federation met with the Arms Explosives & Munition Workers' Federation regarding amalgamation and a National Executive Council was set up in 1943 representing the Federal Committees of Management of both Unions. The name of the organisation was to be the Metal & Munition Workers' Union but it was never registered as such.

Largest ever union amalgamation in 1993

In 1993 FIMEE undertook the largest ever union amalgamation in the history of the country when it joined with the AWU to form today's Union - Australia's largest blue collar union. Bringing together the AWU and the Ironworkers involved two big unions with close ideological positions who both played important roles in the life of the Labor Party and had throughout their histories organised unskilled workers in Australia, often in the same or similar industries.

Building a global union perspective

They were building close relations with the United Steelworkers of America way back in the 1940s, relations which the FIA maintained and built upon throughout the 1950s and then expanded to build relationships with similar unions in Britain and Japan.

It is due to this history of deep and close relations with the Steelworkers - which has its origins in five decades of constant and regular communications and meetings - that our union recently signed a 'Strategic Alliance' with the Steelworkers.

This new Alliance aims to build even closer co-operation across the globe with unions in common sectors such as steel, aluminium and chemicals - all industries which the FIA first began organising in way back in 1908.

In today's AWU the legacy of the Ironworkers is felt in every part of our organisation. The big Ironworker industries of Steel, Aviation, Manufacturing, Aluminium, Chemicals still form the bedrock of the Union as we move forward to build a Union which always knows that we are Stronger Together.

For further information

WWW:	http://www.awu.net.au/

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed
by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW
[Credits] [Site Matters]