The Printing Industry Employees' Union of Australia, known as the One Big Union of Printers in 1916, was registered federally in 1917. On 31 March 1966 the Printing Industry Employees' Union of Australia and the Amalgamated Printing Trades Employees' Union of Australia signed an agreement to amalgamate to form the Printing and Kindred Industries Union.

The Western Australian Typographical Industrial Union of Workers was originally formed as the Western Australian Typographical Society in 1888. It was reorganised in 1889 and the name changed to the Western Australian Typographical Industrial Union of Workers. In 1916, the union became a branch of the federated Printing Industry Employees' Union of Australia, though retaining its former name until June 1921 when it merged with the Goldfields Typographical Union, the Bookbinders' and Paper Rulers' Union and the Metropolitan Female Printing Employees' Union of Workers, Western Australia. On 26 October 1930 the Western Australian branch left the federal body and became the Printing Industry Employees' Union of Western Australia until it re-affiliated in September 1935.

The Newspaper Industry Union of Workers was formed in September 1931 by a section of newspaper employees in Perth. This union amalgamated with the Western Australian branch of the Printing Industry Employees' Union of Australia on 28 November 1938.