Home Australian Trade Union Archives
Peak Union body entry

Home | Browse | Search | Previous | Next

Australian Council of Trade Unions (i) (1947 - 1979)

ACTU
Related EntriesOnline SourcesArchival/Heritage SourcesPublished Sources
Function: Trade Union (Peak Body)
The dominant association and governing body of the trade union movement in Australia. It was established in May 1927 as the Australasian Council of Trade Unions. The Australian Workers' Union joined the ACTU in 1967, and the ACTU's merger with two leading federations of white-collar unions, the Australian Council of Salaried and Professional Associations, in 1979, and the Council of Australian Government Employee Organisations, in 1981, gave it about 2,500,000 members, or more than three-fourths of the trade-union membership in Australia.

The ACTU is represented in many official bodies and has played a major role in Australian politics. It is the recognised representative of organised labour in centralised wage negotiations with business and the federal government. The ACTU has traditionally maintained a close association with the Australian Labor Party, though not actually affiliated to it. Robert Hawke, who was president of the ACTU from 1970 to 1980, went on to serve as Australian prime minister from 1983 to 1991. The ACTU's policy-making body, a biennial congress, is made up of delegates from state branches of the federation (called trades and labour councils) and from affiliated trades unions. The decisions of the ACTU's seventeen-member executive body must be ratified by a majority of the state branches in order to go into effect.

See "online sources" for a pedigree chart of this entity.


Details
Reference/Legal Number(s): Unregistered
 
Related Entries for Australian Council of Trade Unions (i)
Previous and Subsequent Entities

 1921 - 1927 Council of Action, All-Australian Congress of Trade Unions
 1923 - 1927 Commonwealth Council of Federated Unions
       1927 - 1947 Australasian Council of Trade Unions
             1947 - 1979 Australian Council of Trade Unions (i)
                   1979 - 1981 Australian Council of Trade Unions (ii)
                         1981 - Australian Council of Trade Unions (iii)

Member(s)

Top of Page
Online SourcesPublished Sources

Google
Structure based on ISAAR(CPF) - click here for an explanation of the fields.Prepared by: Bruce A. Smith
Created: 20 April 2001
Modified: 12 December 2002

Published by University of Melbourne, 7 March 2002
Based on "Parties to the Award" published 1994.
Submit any comments, questions, corrections and additions
Prepared by: Acknowledgements
Updated: 29 June 2006
http://www.atua.org.au/biogs/ALE0155b.htm

[ Top of page | Australian Trade Union Archives Home | Browse | Search ]