Trade Union entry Rope & Cordage Employees Union of Australia (1915 - 1920)

Summary

As an industry dominated by a few large benevolent employers, rope making remained non-unionised until World War One, when the Rope & Cordage Employees' Union of Australia gained federal registration in 1915. By the end of 1920 this union had been deregistered and a new union, the Australian Rope & Cordage Workers' Union established. Centralisation of production and mechanisation ensured that the workforce and therefore the union remained small. However, for another seventy-two years this union served its members until it was amalgamated with unions representing brushmakers, carpenters and joiners and manufacturing and engineering employees to form in 1992, the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing & Engineering Employees. This union was itself soon amalgamated with the Australian Workers' Union to form the AWU-FIME Amalgamated Union in 1993 and then a later version of the Australian Workers' Union.

Archival resources

The University of Melbourne Archives

• Australian Rope and Cordage Workers' Union, Victorian Branch - Records, 1914 - 1973, 1976.0056; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Online Resources

• 'Chart 22: Trade Unions - Rural Industries. Infrastructure and Manufacturing - Metals and General', in Parties to the Award, 2002, http://www.atua.org.au/ptta/043.html. Details