Peak Union body entry Australian Council of Trade Unions (iii) (1981 - )

Summary

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.

Related entries

Timeline

 1921 - 1927 Council of Action, All-Australian Congress of Trade Unions
 1923 - 1927 Commonwealth Council of Federated Unions
 1948 - 1954 Council of Professional & Commercial Employees Associations
       1921 - 1969 High Council of Commonwealth Public Service Organisations
       1927 - 1947 Australasian Council of Trade Unions
       1954 - 1956 Salaried Employees Consultative Council of New South Wales
       1954 - 1956 Council of White Collar Associations
             1947 - 1979 Australian Council of Trade Unions (i)
             1956 - 1979 Australian Council of Salaried & Professional Associations
             1969 - 1975 Council of Commonwealth Public Service Organisations
                   1975 - 1981 Council of Australian Government Employee Organisations
                   1979 - 1981 Australian Council of Trade Unions (ii)
                         1981 - Australian Council of Trade Unions (iii)

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Lloyd Ross - Papers, 1854-1986, 1854 - 1986, MS 3939; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

National Library of Australia Oral History Collection

• Charlie Fitzgibbon interviewed by Richard Raxworthy in the Labor Council of New South Wales oral history project, 1986, ORAL TRC 1948/19; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details
• John Ducker interviewed by Richard Raxworthy in the Labor Council of New South Wales oral history project, 1988, ORAL TRC 1948/36; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details
• Martin Ferguson address at the National Press Club, Canberra on 14 April, 1992, 1992, ORAL TRC 4285; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details
• Terry Muscat interviewed by Barry York for the Maltese Australian folklife and social history project, 1998, ORAL TRC 3772; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details

The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program

• Australian Council of Trade Unions - Records, 1969 - 1981, N88; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details
• Australian Council of Trade Unions - Records, 1906 - 1989, N21; N58; N68; Z282; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details
• Council of Australian Government Employee Organisations - Records, 1920 - 1991, N87; Z311; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details

The University of Melbourne Archives

• Michael Quinlan Collection, 1944 - 1986, 1992.0095; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

University of Wollongong Archives

• Australian Council of Trade Unions - Minutes and Reports, 1921 - 1949, D65; University of Wollongong Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

• Griffin, Gerard, The Authority of the ACTU, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 1994, 19 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Hagan, James, 'Unions: Context and Perspective 1850-1980', in Ford, Bill and Plowman, David (eds), Australian Unions: an Industrial Perspective, 1983, pp. 30-58. Details

Journal Articles

• ACTU, 'Union Amalgamations', ACTU Bulletin, vol. 16, 1992. Details
• Cameron, Clyde, 'ALP and the Unions - Past, Present and the Future', Labour History, vol. 64, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney, 1993, pp. 119-128. Details
• Coates, R., 'Fifty Years of the ACTU', Australian Left Review, no. 83, 1982, pp. 47-53. Details
• Davis, E.M., 'Roles of Australian Unions in Industrial Relations', Austalian Labour Relations: Readings, vol. 4, 1987, pp. 280-297. Details
• Rawson, D.W., 'ACTU: Growth Yes, Power No', Power Conflict and Control in Australian Trade Unions, 1982, pp. 86-102. Details
• Rimmer, Malcolm, 'Long-run Structural Change in Australian Trade Unionism', Journal of Industrial Relations, 1981, pp. 323-343. Details

Online Resources

• 'Chart 1: Peak National Councils - Trade Unions', in Parties to the Award, 2002, http://www.atua.org.au/ptta/021.html. Details

See also

• Matthews, T.V., 'Business Associations and the State, 1850-1979', State and Economy in Australia, 1983, pp. 115-149. Details