Was the AWU ever not the AWU?

This is a trick question. But yes, technically the AWU did not exist for a couple of years in the early 1990s. In 1993, tens of thousands of AWU members – and members of FIMEE (Federation of Industrial, Manufacturing and Engineering Employees) – voted to create a new union, the AWU-FIME.

In 1995, the National Executive of the new union took the necessary legal and governance decisions to revert to a simpler and more direct name, the AWU. And so, the various fine unions which had come together in 1991 to form FIMEE became part of the bigger AWU family, and their history and achievements are now part of the AWU story. Many of our long-term members today may remember their early years in one of these unions!

ACTU Merger Mania

In the 1980s, the ACTU decided that Australia had too many unions – the Hawke-Keating Government looked overseas, especially to Europe, and concluded that a more-streamlined union movement would work more efficiently and help build national productivity (there is no hard evidence to back this, and it can be argued now that the difficult and complicated amalgamation process was a damaging distraction for some unions). By the end of the 1990s, after 15 years of government support and public funding, the number of Australian unions had shrunk from about 135 to today’s roughly 45.

Early on, Federated Ironworkers Association (FIA) and Australasian Society of Engineers (ASE) members voted in 1985 on a proposal to form AEIA – the Allied Engineers & Ironworkers Association. But a vigorous and well-funded “VOTE NO” campaign led by the ASE Victorian Branch delivered a negative vote from ASE members. (Surveys of both members suggested they preferred the AMWU as a better partner for a merger.)

1991 – a successful vote to form FIMEE

Following more hard work and positive negotiations, FIA and ASE executives agreed to put a new amalgamation proposal to a vote. What made the difference this time was a bigger picture – a bigger strategy – underlying the creation of a new metal industry union. Other unions were invited to join in, and the long-term goal was to bring a solid manufacturing base into the AWU.

FEDERATED IRONWORKERS’ ASSOCIATION

Steel, aluminium, oil industry, civil construction – steel fixing, scaffolders, riggers, dogmen – base metals, metal fabrication. Had already merged (1944) with the Munition Workers Union and (1975) with the Chemical Workers Union. The Chemical Workers retained their own autonomous sub-branch.

AUSTRALASIAN SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS

Formed as an autonomous nationally-based breakaway from the UK-controlled Amalgamated Society of Engineers. From 1890 to 1920, the two rival metal unions were both ASE. Through the ASE, all AWU members have a link back to one of the oldest unions in the world – the UK Amalgamated Society of Engineers, founded in London in 1851. Our ASE broke away from the British union in 1890 – the other part (ASE-AEU) remained under British control until 1970, when the AMWU (Amalgamated Manufacturing Workers Union) was formed.

AUSTRALIAN GLASS WORKERS UNION

Most obviously glass containers, but also massive in sheet glass for building products. The AGWU was first registered in 1909 as the Amalgamated Glass Bottlemakers’ Union, and changed to the AGWU in 1918.

AMALGAMATED SOCIETY OF CARPENTERS & JOINERS

Reformed in 1949 as a breakaway from the rebel Building Workers Industrial Union which had been federally deregistered in 1948. ASCJ covered both on-site construction work and off-site building products (as did the FIA and AGWU. Through the ASCJ, all AWU members can trace their history back to the original ASCJ founded in Britain in 1860. As with the metal trades ASE above, the earliest Australian unions were sub-branches of British unions.

The broad base of FIMEE’s four constituent unions – brought into the AWU in the successful 1993 amalgamation – came close to doubling the AWU’s potential membership and industry. Almost the birth of a New Union – and certainly one with many exciting options for the 21st century!

AWU AMALGAMATIONS BETWEEN 1904 AND 1993