Australian Manufacturing Workers Union

AMWU
Full name Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union
Founded 1995
Members 93,805 (2013) [1]
Affiliation ACTU, IndustriALL, ALP
Key people Paul Bastian, National Secretary
Office location 133 Parramatta Rd, Granville, New South Wales
Country Australia
Website www.amwu.asn.au

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, or more fully, the Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union (AMWU) ("The Metalworkers") is an Australian trade union that is registered with the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and is affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

The AMWU is considered to be the most powerful left-wing union in the trade union movement. It is made up of five divisions, representing different industries or occupational groups: Vehicle division, Metal and Engineering division, the Food and Confectionery division, the Technical, Supervisory and Administrative division (for white collar workers) and the Printing division.

History

The AMWU has its origins in the amalgamation of four metal trade unions - the Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Society of Australia, the Federated Jewellers, Watchmakers and Allied Trades Union of Australia, the Sheet Metal Working Industrial Union of Australia and the Amalgamated Engineering Union - to form the Amalgamated Metal Workers Union (AMWU) in 1973. At its formation the AMWU had a membership of 171,000, making it the largest organisation in Australia by membership, at the time.[2]

AMWU members protest then-Prime Minister John Howard's IR reforms

Seven years later, after amalgamation with the Federated Shipwrights and Ship Constructors Union of Australia, the AMWU changed its name to the Amalgamated Metal Workers and Shipwrights Union (AMWSU). When the Federated Moulders’ (Metals) Union amalgamated in 1983, the union's name changed slightly to the Amalgamated Metals Foundry & Shipwrights’ Union, but in 1985 reverted to the Amalgamated Metal Workers’ Union.

A 1991 amalgamation with the Association of Draughting Supervisory & Technical Employees (ADSTE) created the Metals and Engineering Workers’ Union. Two years later a further amalgamation with the Vehicle Builders Employees’ Federation of Australia resulted in the Automotive Metals & Engineering Union. In 1994 this union merged with the Confectionery Workers' and Food Preservers’ Union, itself a recent amalgamation of the Food Preservers' Union of Australia and the Confectionery Workers' Union of Australia, to form the Automotive Food Metals and Engineering Union. Finally, the Printing and Kindred Industries Union amalgamated to form the printing division of the Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union.

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (21 March 2014). "2014 Annual Returns" (PDF). List of registered organisations. Fair Work Commission. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Huntley, Pat (1980). Inside Australia's Top 100 Unions. Middle Cove, NSW: Ian Huntley (Aust.). pp. 141–145. ISBN 0-9598507-4-0.
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