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Trade Union entry Fire Brigade Employees Union of New South Wales (1910 - 1922)

From
1910
New South Wales
To
1922
Functions
Trade Union (State or Territory only)

Summary

Formed in 1910 and registered just a year later, the Fire Brigade Employees' Union of New South Wales was the first known trade union of firefighters in the world. By 1922 the Union had changed names to the Fire Brigades Association of New South Wales, but officers remained excluded. In 1948, however, the Officers' and Firefighters' Associations formally amalgamated and were registered under the new (and current) title of the New South Wales Fire Brigade Employees' Union [FBEU]. Officers joined firefighters on strike for the first time, over pay. Just a year later, in 1949, a splinter group of senior officers emerged from the ranks of the FBEU to form a Senior Officers' Association, independent of the FBEU. By 1975, the Senior Officers' Association and the FBEU formally amalgamated, finally making the FBEU the one industrial union for all New South Wales firefighters.

Timeline

 1910 - 1922 Fire Brigade Employees Union of New South Wales
       1922 - 1948 Fire Brigades Association of New South Wales
             1948 - New South Wales Fire Brigade Employees Union

Archival resources

The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program

  • New South Wales Fire Brigade Employees Union - Records, 1912 - 1975, T22; Z332; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Jopson, Debra, The Red Brigade: The Official History of the New South Wales Fire Brigade Employee's Union, NSW Fire Brigade Employee's Union, Sydney, 1994, 349 pp. Details

Ross G. Elford