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Trade Union entry Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (1912 - )

AMIEU

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    Chart 14: Trade Unions - Hospitality, Liqor and miscellaneous Workers
    Details

From
1912
Functions
Trade Union (Federal)
Website
http://amieu.net/
Reference No
007V

Summary

The Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union can trace its origins to 1890 when organisations covering slaughtermen, retail butchers, and sausage casing workers began to meet. In 1905 these strands became part of a federal network, which registered with the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in 1906 as the Australasian Federated Butchers Employees' Union. In 1912 this name was changed to the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union which exists unchanged to this day. Women came to form a large part of the boning and packing sections of the industry, and, as a consequence, the Union became one of the spearheads of the equal pay campaign. From 1958, a centralisation of the union administration took place largely as a result of extensions to federal industrial award coverage. A federal secretariat headed by a paid Federal Secretary was established in the 1960s.

Timeline

 1906 - 1912 Australasian Federated Butchers Employees Union
       1912 - Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union

Archival resources

Central Queensland University, Capricornia Central Queensland Collection

  • Australiasian Meat Industry Employees' Union, Rockhampton Branch - Records, 1910 - 1985, MS J19/940-947; Central Queensland University, Capricornia Central Queensland Collection. Details
  • Oliver Simmonson - History Research Papers, 1881 - 1988, MS K7/955; Central Queensland University, Capricornia Central Queensland Collection. Details
  • Records of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union, Queensland Branch, 1909 - 1967, MS L7/1054-69; Central Queensland University, Capricornia Central Queensland Collection. Details

Fryer Library and Department of Special Collections, University of Queensland

  • From Lunchroom to Boardroom - Records of Oral History Project, Women in the Labor movement, 1930-1970, 1991, UQFL 300; Fryer Library and Department of Special Collections, University of Queensland. Details

James Cook University of North Queensland, Library Archives

  • Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union - Records, 1915 - 2003; James Cook University of North Queensland, Library Archives. Details

The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program

  • Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union - Records, 1895 - 1963, T36; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details
  • J.C. Coupe Papers, 1914 - 1961, P19; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

  • Amalgamated Meat Industry Employees' Union - Photographs and documents, ca. 1901-ca. 1970, c. 1901 - c. 1970, MS 10676; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details
  • Samuel Merrifield - Papers, ca. 1858-ca. 1977, c. 1858 - c. 1977, MS 13045; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Unconfirmed

  • Records, 1910 - 1966, D39; Unconfirmed. Details
  • Records, 1913 - 1962, D24; Unconfirmed. Details
  • Records, 1909 - 1967, D80; Unconfirmed. Details
  • Records, 1889 - 1965, D83; Unconfirmed. Details
  • Records, 1908 - 1966, D50; Unconfirmed. Details

The University of Melbourne Archives

  • Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union, Victorian Branch - Records, 1984 - 1988, 1991.0131; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details
  • Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union, Victorian Branch - Records, 1890 - 1982, 1985.0081; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

University of Wollongong Archives

  • Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union - Awards, 1951 - 1959, A72-A75; University of Wollongong Archives. Details
  • Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union - Federal Council Records, 1906 - 1968, D78; University of Wollongong Archives. Details
  • Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union - NSW Branch Records, 1920 - 1972, D1; University of Wollongong Archives. Details
  • Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union - The Vestey Story, 1970, A239; University of Wollongong Archives. Details
  • 'The history of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union : a study of the internal dynamics of a labour organisation' by T.A. Cutler, 1976, 331.880994/18; University of Wollongong Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Davies, A.E., The Meat Workers Unite, Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union (Victorian Branch), Melbourne, 1974, 303 pp. Details
  • Davis, W., In Pursuit of the Millenium, AMIEU, Qld Branch, Brisbane, 23-33 pp. Details

Edited Books

  • Murphy, D.J. (ed.), The Big Strikes, Queensland 1889-1965, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, Queensland, 1983, 303 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Blackmur, Douglas, 'Arbitration, Legislation and Industrial Peace: Queensland in the Reconstruction Years', Labour History, vol. 63, 1992, pp. 115-134. Details
  • Brian, Bernie, 'The Mudginberri Abattoir Dispute of 1985', Labour History, vol. 76, 1999, pp. 107-124. Details
  • Cutler, Terrence, 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday: The Townsville Meatworkers' Strike of 1918-1919', Labour History, vol. 24, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney, 1973, pp. 81-102. Details
  • Jerrard, Marjorie, 'A Surprising Struggle? The AMIEU (Qld) and the Fight for Equal Wages in the Meat Processing and Export Industry in the 1950s and 1960s', Labour History, vol. 77, 1999, pp. 140-159. Details
  • McCallum, Ronald Clive, 'Voluntary Trade Unionism in New South Wales: Timely Innovation or Backward Step?', Australian Journal of Labour law, vol. 71, 1994, p. 1. Details

Theses

  • Cutler, Terrance, 'The History of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union: A Study of the Internal Dynamics of a Labour Organisation', PhD thesis, Department of History, University of New South Wales, 1976. Details

Online Resources

See also

  • Arrowsmith, John, 'Obituary: George Seelaf', Recorder, no. 153, 1988, pp. 4-6. Details

Digital resources

Title
Chart 14: Trade Unions - Hospitality, Liqor and miscellaneous Workers
Type
Image

Details

Bruce A. Smith