Trade Union entry New South Wales Teachers Federation (1919 - )

Summary

At a time when the teaching industry was rife with comparitively poor conditions and low wages various New South Wales teachers' associations such as the NSW Public School Teachers' Association, the NSW Public School Assistant Teachers' Association, the Women Teachers' Association, the Headmasters' Association, the Manual Training Teachers' Association and the Sewing Mistresses' Association, met in 1918 to discuss the likelihood of an amalgamation. The result was the founding of the New South Wales Teachers' Federation in 1919. Without rivals it gained and held the loyalty of most teachers throughout the 1920s.

Despite a lull in membership during the Great Depression years, the NSW Teachers' Federation formally linked itself to the state and national trade union movement during World War Two by affiliating with the NSW Labour Council and the Australian Council of Trade Unions [ACTU]. After the war large salary gains were achieved and about 90% of teachers became members of the union. The New South Wales Teachers' Federation was instrumental in lobbying the government of the day to introduce equal pay for women in 1958 and 1963.

The NSW Teachers' Federation is affiliated with the Australian Education Union [AEU], constituting its NSW Branch whilst retaining its separate identity.

Related entries

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Oral History Collection

• Don Taylor interviewed by Richard Raxworthy in the Labor Council of New South Wales oral history project, 1986, ORAL TRC 1948/11; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details

The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program

• New South Wales Teachers Federation - Records, 1929 - 1992, Z449; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details
• New South Wales Teachers Federation - Records, 1985 - 1994, Z548; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details
• New South Wales Teachers Federation - Records, 1890 - 1989, T15; E210; N111; Z327; The Noel Butlin Archives Centre, ANU Archives Program. Details

The University of Melbourne Archives

• Kevin Hince Collection, 1959 - 1977, 1994.0147; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

University of Wollongong Archives

• N.S.W. Teachers' Federation - Records, 1929 - 1971, D35; University of Wollongong Archives. Details
• Shoalhaven Teachers' Association Collection, 1908 - 1975, D31; University of Wollongong Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

• Mitchell, B., A History of Public School Teachers' Organisations in New South Wales, 1885-1945 (PHD Thesis), Australian National University, 1969. Details
• Mitchell, B., Teachers, Education and Politics: A History of Organizations of Public School Teachers in New South Wales, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland, 1975, 260 pp. Details
• O'Brien, J., A Divided Unity!: Politics of NSW Teacher Militancy since 1945, Allen and Unwin in association with the NSW Teachers' Federation, North Sydney, New South Wales, 1987, 290 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Deverall, Kate, 'A Bid for Affirmative Action: Annie Golding and the New South Wales Public School Teachers' Association, 1900-15', Labour History, vol. 77, 1999, pp. 117-139. Details
• Mitchell, B., 'The New South Wales Teachers' Federation', Labour History, vol. 17, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney, 1971, pp. 67-79. Details
• Mitchell, B., 'In the Public Interest?: The New South Wales Teachers' Strike of 1968', Labour History, vol. 24, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney, 1973, pp. 249-265. Details

Theses

• O'Brien, John M., 'The New South Wales Teachers' Federation c.1957-1975', PhD thesis, Department of History and Politics, University of Wollongong, 1985. Details

See also

• Eather, Warwick, 'A City to Struggle in: Wagga Wagga and Labour, 1940-75', Labour History, vol. 78, 2000, pp. 141-154. Details
• Kramar, Robin, 'Employment Practices and Women in the New South Wales Public Service, 1947-78', 53rd ANZAAS Congress: SWRC papers, vol. 53, 1983, p. 8. Details
• Phelan, G., Women in Action in the Federation, New South Wales Teachers Federation, Sydney, 1981. Details