Deposit Z291 - Building Workers' Industrial Union New South Wales Branch deposit 1

Identity area

Reference code

AU NBAC Z291

Title

Building Workers' Industrial Union New South Wales Branch deposit 1

Date(s)

  • 1870 - 1999 (Creation)

Level of description

Deposit

Extent and medium

505 boxes

Context area

Name of creator

(c. 1856 - 1943)

Biographical history

The Society existed from at least 1856 and had branches in Sydney, Newtown, Newcastle, Lithgow, North Sydney, Goulburn, Granville, Burwood and Canberra (from 1924 coinciding with the construction of Parliament House). It was part of the Federated Bricklayers' Association of Australia and its members joined the Building Workers' Industrial Union when it formed in 1945.

Name of creator

(1850 - 1945, 1950 - 1992)

Biographical history

Reflecting its status as a branch of its English parent union, this society was originally registered as the Australian District of Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners in 1911 though it had existed as an affiliate of the British union since the 1850s. By the end of 1922 the name had been amended to become the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners of Australia. It operated until the end of the Second World War when its name was changed to the Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia in 1945. The Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia functioned for just three more years until it was deregistered in 1948. The name Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners was taken over by a rival, anti-Communist breakaway group and federally registered in 1950, then was itself deregistered in 1951. Reforming in 1952, it eventually amalgamated with a number of unions in 1992 to form the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Employees.

Name of creator

(1945 - 1991)

Biographical history

The Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia formed from the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners of Australia in 1945 but was deregistered in 1948. An anti-communist faction of the union established a new Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners in 1950 which eventually became part of the Australian Workers' Union. The Building Workers' Industrial Union formally reconstituted in 1962. Members of the Federated Bricklayers' Association of Australia (deregistered 1950) and the Slaters Tilers Shinglers and Roof Fixers Union of Australia (deregistered 1976) also joined. In 1991 the BWIU amalgamated with the timber unions to become the Australian Timber and Allied Industries Union and Building Workers' Industrial Union (ATAIU & BWIU) Amalgamated Union and to eventually be part of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union in 1993.

Name of creator

(1915 - 1993)

Biographical history

The Federated House and Ship Painters, Paperhangers and Decorators Employees' Association of Australasia became the Operative Painters and Decorators of Australasia in 1915. In 1918 it changed its name to the Operative Painters' and Decorators' Union of Australia. Seventy-five years later, the union amalgamated to form the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union in 1993.

Name of creator

(1925 - 1992)

Biographical history

The Operative Plasterers' Federation of Australia initially consisted of an amalgamation of the New South Wales and Tasmanian plasterers' unions. It changed its name to the Operative Plasterers' and Plaster Workers' Federation of Australia in 1960. In 1963 the South Australian, Western Australian and Queensland plastering unions joined the Federation but the two Victorian plasterers' unions remained separate. The union amalgamated with other construction and mining unions in 1992 to eventually become part of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union in 1993.

Name of creator

(1853 - 1918)

Biographical history

The union was initially formed in 1853 as the United Operative Masons and was later known as the Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons of New South Wales, before the more common name, the Operative Stonemasons' Society of New South Wales was used. It became the New South Wales branch of the Operative Stonemasons' Society of Australia in 1918.

Name of creator

(1894 - c. 1982)

Biographical history

The Amalgamated Glass Bottle Makers' Trade Protective Society of Australia was established in Sydney in 1894. In 1895 the words Glass Workers were substituted for Glass Bottle Makers. At this time the association was amalgamated with the Melbourne glass workers' union. By 1900 the amalgamation had broken up and the union was then called the Glass Workers Union of New South Wales. It joined the Amalgamated Glass Bottle Makers Union of Australia (1909 - 1918) which became the Australian Glass Workers' Union.

Name of creator

(1908 - 1992)

Biographical history

The Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Association of Australasia dates back to local engine drivers' unions on Australian goldfields but was not registered federally until 1908. Predecessors include the Newcastle Colliery Engine Drivers' Union (1889-1921), the Newcastle Crane Employees' Union (1893-1915), the Shore Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Union of New South Wales (1901-1908), the Steam Crane Engine Drivers' Society of New South Wales (1901-1910), the New England Engine Drivers' Association (amalgamated in 1908), the Amalgamated Engine Drivers' Association of Tasmania and the United Certificated Engine Drivers' Association of Victoria. It was deregistered in 1949 but formed again in 1950 under the same name. It was amalgamated with the Construction Forestry and Mining Employees' Union and the Operative Plasterers' and Plaster Workers' Federation of Australia in 1992 to form the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union. The union represented engine drivers and firemen, crane drivers, dynamo and boiler attendants, forklift drivers and plant operators in hospitals, abattoirs, dockyards, brickworks, mines, power stations and factories.

Name of creator

(1992 -2018)

Biographical history

The Constuction Forestry Mining and Energy Union is the result of a series of amalgamations during the early 1990s. Prior to amalgamation there were numerous unions spread across construction, forestry, mining and energy industries. Those unions amalgamated along industry lines to form each of the divisions of the CFMEU. Each division operates autonomously, with its own membership, executive, resources, industry policies and campaigns. These divisions date as far back as the mid-nineteenth century and include such notable unions as the Australasian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation (the Miners' Federation), the Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia, the Australian Timber Workers' Union, the Federated Furnishing Trade Society of Australasia, the Operative Plasterers' Federation of Australia, the Operative Painters' and Decorators' Union of Australia, and the Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Association of Australasia.

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Scope and content

Records of the United Operative Bricklayers' Trade Society of New South Wales (1870-1942) including Sydney, Newtown, Lithgow, North Sydney, Goulburn, Burwood and Canberra branches, records of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (1895-1945) including NSW and Queensland Management Committee minutes and records of Sydney, Balmain, Goulburn, Newcastle (membership records 1913-1949), Boulder, Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie and Brisbane branches, and minutes of the NSW State Executive of the BWIU (1943-1983), State conferences (1944-1983) and Newcastle Branch (1940s-1970), subject files, arbitration material, rule books and printed material. Also includes records of the NSW Operative Stonemason's Society (1899-1910), Federated Bricklayers' Association of Australia (1915-1920), Plate, Sheet and Ornamental Glass Workers Union of NSW (1916-1930) and the Ship Joiners Society of Australia (1917-1918, 1950-1952), minutes and membership register of Tilelayers' Union of NSW (1908-1913), minutes (1929-1982) and membership records (1925-1976) of the NSW Glass Workers' Union, minutes of NSW Building Trades Federation (1913-1916), Brewery Employees' Union, Kalgoorlie/Boulder District (1910-1914), Operative Plasterers' and Plaster Worker's Federation, NSW State Executive (1967-1994), Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen's Association (FEDFA) Management Committee (1984-1993), and records of the Operative Painters' and Decorators' Union, NSW Branch (1947-1994) and Newcastle Branch (1974-1991). Records from 1993 were created by the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.

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Entered from deposit description 4 October 2012

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