Deposit E195 - Federated Ironworkers' Association deposit 5

The Federated Ironworkers Association of Australia was formed in Sydney on 25 September 1908 by delegates from New South Wales and Victoria. By 1909 it had branches in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. The Federation was registered on 20 May 1911. In October and November 1942 the Federation met with the Arms Explosives and 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. In 1975 the FIA amalgamated again with the Federated Artificial Fertilizer and Chemical Workers' Union of Australia. Although reregistering, the Union remained known as the Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia. A further amalgamation with the Australasian Society of Engineers in 1991 created the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Employees. A year later the Australian Glass Workers' Union joined and by 1993, the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Employees merged with the Australian Workers' Union to form the AWU-FIME Amalgamated Union.

The Federated Artificial Fertilizers and Chemical Workers' Union of Australia originated as the Federated Artificial Manure Trade and Chemical Workers' Union of Australia. Formed in 1913 as a breakaway union to the then communist-controlled Federated Ironworkers' Association, the Federated Artificial Manure Trade and Chemical Workers Union of Australia underwent a change of name in 1921 to the Federated Artificial Fertilizers and Chemical Workers' Union of Australia. By the end of 1948 this union had been deregistered and then reregistered under the same name. In 1975 it was amalgamated back into the Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia, which subsequently became the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Employees.

The Arms, Explosives and Munition Workers' Federation of Australia first met in October 1917, initially being an amalgamation of the New South Wales and Victorian Branches of the Small Arms Factory Employees' and Munition Workers' Association (1912-1917). It was federally registered in 1919, and attracted members from the Ammunition, Cordite and Explosives Employees' Industrial Organisation of Australia (1914-1926) and formed branches in Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. It was deregistered following the end of Second World War in 1946 after an amalgamation with the Federated Ironworkers' Association to form the proposed Metal and Munition Workers' Union did not eventuate.