{{Short description|Former maritime trade union in Australia}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Use Australian English|date=September 2019}} {{Infobox union |name = Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia |location = Australia |affiliations = |num_members = |full_name = Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia |native_name = |image = |founded = 1902 |dissolved = 1993 |merged_into = Maritime Union of Australia |headquarters = |key_people = |website = |footnotes = }}
thumb|300px|An early banner of the Sydney Branch of the Waterside Workers' Federation. The '''Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia''' (WWF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1902 to 1993.<ref name="Australian Trade Union Archives">{{cite web|url=http://www.atua.org.au/biogs/ALE0899b.htm|title=Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia (i) (1907–1991)|work=Australian Trade Union Archives|access-date=23 July 2015}}</ref> After a period of negotiations between other Australian maritime unions, it was federated in 1902 and first federally registered in 1907; its first general president was Billy Hughes.
In 1993 the WWF merged with the Seamen's Union of Australia to form the Maritime Union of Australia.<ref name="Australian Trade Union Archives"/>
==History==
=== Predecessors === The Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia traces its roots to the formation on the Australian waterfront in September 1872 of two unions in Sydney, the '''Labouring Men's Union of Circular Quay''' and the '''West Sydney Labouring Men's Association''',<ref name="Bull">{{cite book |last=Bull |first=Tasnor Ivan |date=1998 |title=Life on the waterfront: an autobiography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl1cHQAACAAJ |location=Sydney |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |page=130 |isbn=07322-6792-7}}</ref> which merged ten years later to form the '''Sydney Wharf Labourers' Union'''. In 1884 the '''Melbourne Wharf Labourers' Union''' was formed with the support of Melbourne Trades Hall representatives, after shipowners refused to allow waterfront workers to attend Eight-hour Day celebrations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/2224 |title=Melbourne Wharf Laborers' Union, Victoria |last=Tout-Smith |first=D. |year=2003 |publisher=Museum Victoria Collections |access-date= 25 April 2016}}</ref>
=== 1900 to 1945 === With Federation in 1901 and the impending introduction of an arbitration system, the national '''Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia''' was formed in 1902 under the leadership of Billy Hughes. Hughes had been a member of the federal parliament and became Prime Minister in 1915. Hughes was expelled from the Australian Labor Party and the union in 1916 over conscription in Australia and then formed the Nationalist Party to continue in government.
In 1917 the ''War Precautions Act 1914'' was used to defeat a waterside workers nationwide strike by the passing of a regulation that deprived the Waterside Workers' Federation of preferences in seven of the busiest ports in Australia.
From about 1900 to the 1940s, work on Melbourne wharves was obtained through the ''bull'' system of labour hire where workers would be hired on a daily basis at a pickup point, and which was prone to corruption. (See Wailing Wall.) In Sydney, workers would walk from wharf to wharf in search of a job, often failing to find one. (See The Hungry Mile.)<ref name="Walking the Hungry Mile">{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/03/1054406193082.html |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |title=Union leaders walk the Hungry Mile |date=4 June 2003}}</ref> In 1917, waterside workers went on strike over the issue of the pickup and demanded the establishment of a single central pickup point at the Flinders Street Extension and that their remuneration should include the time taken to travel to and from their assigned ships. The impending arrival of strikebreakers from Sydney resulted in the calling off of the strike and abandonment of the dispute about a central pickup.<ref>[http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/interventions/1917strike.htm Robert Bollard, Victorian workers in the 1917 Mass Strike Australian National University]</ref> The strike action led to the formation in 1917 of the Permanent & Casual Wharf Labourers Union of Australia in opposition to the Waterside Workers' Federation.
In 1928, the Nationalist government of Stanley Bruce amended the ''Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act'' to require industrial courts to consider the economic effects of its awards in addition to the welfare of workers.<ref>{{cite book | title = Bruce, Stanley Melbourne (1883–1967) | publisher = Australian Dictionary of Biography | location = Canberra | url = https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bruce-stanley-melbourne-5400 | access-date = 23 December 2012 | ref = {{sfnRef|Australian Dictionary of Biography}} }}</ref> Immediate problems followed when a new award for waterside workers in 1928 worsened conditions for workers on economic grounds. The Waterside Workers Union again sought the abolition of the "bull" pickup system in a new award, but Justice George Beeby of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration handed down a new award worse than the old, which included double pickup, cancelled the single pickup in those ports where it existed and removed restrictions on over-long shifts because they slowed ship turnaround times. Wharfies were to be paid less for evening and night shifts than they would for the horror shifts making these dangerously attractive.
All appeals for safeguards against excessive strain and overwork were rejected, as claimed for improved safety.<ref>''The Sydney Morning Herald'', Sunday, 12 April 1998: [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/120518812/ Page 39, War on the Wharves]</ref> The union rejected the award and organised strike action, which later resulted in riots and violence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://aic.gov.au/conferences/hcpp/baker.pdf |author=David Baker |title=Barricades and batons: an historical perspective of the policing of major industrial disorder in Australia |access-date=23 August 2007}}</ref> Bruce pushed the ''Transport Workers Act'' through parliament in September, which gave the government unprecedented regulatory power in industrial relations.<ref>{{cite book | last = Sawer | first = Geoffrey | year = 1956 | title = Australian Federal Politics and Law, 1901–1929 | url = https://archive.org/details/australianfedera0000sawe | url-access = registration | publisher = Melbourne University Press | location = Melbourne | ref = {{sfnRef|Sawer}} | page = [https://archive.org/details/australianfedera0000sawe/page/265 265] }}</ref> All waterfront workers now required federal licences, or "dog collars" as they were derisively known, to work.<ref>{{cite book | last = Lee | first = David | year = 2010 | title = Stanley Melbourne Bruce : Australian Internationalist | publisher = Continuum Press | location = London | isbn = 978-0-8264-4566-7 | ref = {{sfnRef|Lee}} | page = 79 }}</ref> The act allowed the Commonwealth government to effectively control who worked on the docks and nearly destroyed the Waterside Workers' Federation, earning the government deep unpopularity among organised labour. Employment of non-union labour and members of the Permanent & Casual Wharf Labourers Union of Australia almost killed off the Waterside Workers' Federation. Bruce then called the 1928 election for November, reviving the "red scare" pitch for the campaign.
The stalwarts of the Waterside Workers' Federation were subject to official suspicion and scrutiny for many years. In the late 1930s union officials such as General Secretary Big Jim Healy and Brisbane Branch Secretary, Ted Englart, swallowed their pride and began recruiting members of their rival PCWLUA, which many union members regarded as "scabs". In 1936 the union shifted its head office from Melbourne to Sydney. In 1938 the union, through the efforts of Port Kembla Branch Secretary Ted Roach, played a key role in the Dalfram dispute which drew attention to Japan's undeclared war in China and famously led to Robert Menzies being known as ''Pig Iron Bob''.
The union consolidated its strength with the labour shortages during World War II.<ref name="adbHealy" /> During the Indonesian National Revolution, the WWF placed a "black ban" on Dutch colonial ships going to Indonesia as a show of solidarity.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dalziel |first=Alex |date=September 9, 2002 |title=75 years of 'Black Armada': Australian dockworkers defend Indonesia's independence in 1945 |url=https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/09/09/75-years-of-black-armada-australian-dockworkers-defend-indonesias-independence-in-1945.html |access-date=2022-05-28 |website=The Jakarta Post |language=en}}</ref>
=== 1945-1991 === In 1950, the WWF finally absorbed the '''Permanent & Casual Wharf Labourers Union of Australia''' as a distinct branch.<ref name="Australian Trade Union Archives" />
In 1954, the federal government led by Robert Menzies legislated for a committee of inquiry into the waterside industry by the ''Stevedoring Industry Act 1954'',<ref>{{cite Legislation AU|Cth|num_act|sia1954751954297|Stevedoring Industry Act 1954}}.</ref> in an attempt by the government to end the WWF's monopoly on the supply of wharf labour.<ref name=adbHealy>{{cite AuDB |id2=healy-james-jim-10470 |title=Healy, James (Jim) (1898–1961) |first1=Ray |last1=Markey |first2=Stuart |last2=Svensen |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> The Waterside Workers' Federation went on strike for a fortnight in November 1954. Although the changes were passed, the new legislation proved unworkable. In early 1955 a new recruiting agreement was drawn up protecting the union's right to recruit labour with Harold Holt, Minister for Labour and National Service. The government pressed ahead in 1956 with new legislation aimed at weakening the federation and the improvements it had gained in working conditions and safety provisions.<ref name=adbHealy/>
In the 1960s containerisation began to replace break bulk as the main means of transporting cargo, dramatically reducing the need for waterfront labour. Inspired by the example of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in the United States, the WWF decided to co-operate with containerisation, in return for significant improvements in working conditions, such as permanency, an industry pension scheme and reduced working hours.<ref name=Bull/>
In 1971 the WWF affiliated with the International Transport Workers' Federation.<ref name=Bull/> In the same year the WWF absorbed the waterside section of the North Australian Workers' Union, which became its Darwin branch.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brian |first=Bernard Norman |url=https://ris.cdu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/22706059/Thesis_CDU_6353_Brian_B.pdf |title=The Northern Territory's one Big Union: The Rise and Fall of the North Australian Workers' Union, 1911-1972 |publisher=Charles Darwin University |year=2001 |page=275}}</ref> In 1991, the WWF amalgamated with the '''Australian Foremen Stevedore Association''' but retained the name Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia.<ref name="Australian Trade Union Archives"/>
==Officeholders== The Communist Party of Australia (CPA) was formed in October 1920, and achieved significant influence in the Australian trade union movement, especially in New South Wales. Members of the CPA would play a prominent role throughout the history of the Waterside Workers' Federation, including officials such as Big Jim Healy and Tas Bull, and the union was regarded as Communist-led.
Healy had joined the CPA in 1934, after he had been the Queensland branch president since 1929. He was elected national General Secretary in October 1937, a position he held until his death in 1961.<ref name=adbHealy/>
Bull was a one-time CPA member, then a member of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist–Leninist) and later a member of the Australian Labor Party, and was General Secretary of the union from 1984 to 1992. With membership dwindling, partly as a result of containerisation, Bull steered the union towards an amalgamation with the Seamen's Union.<ref>''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 9 July 2003, [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/08/1057430205357.html Formidable battler for the wharfies]</ref> He succeeding Charlie Fitzgibbon (1961–83)<ref>Workers Online, [http://workers.labor.net.au/85/news92_charlie.html Vale: Charlie Fitzgibbon (1922–2001)]</ref><ref>Australian Trade Union Archives, [http://www.atua.org.au/biogs/ALE1083b.htm Fitzgibbon, Charles Henry (1922–2001)]</ref> and Norm Docker (1983–84), another CPA member.<ref>Australian National University, [http://archivescollection.anu.edu.au/index.php/norm-docker-collection Deposit Z602 – Norm Docker Collection]</ref>
==''Maritime Worker''== In the 1930s, Jim Healy was instrumental in the publication of the WWF's national journal, the ''Maritime Worker'', of which he was the first editor.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia | title=Maritime worker | publication-date=1938 | publisher=Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/16632484 | access-date=30 June 2022}}</ref> Rupert Lockwood was a later editor.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Photographer: not known | title=Rupert Lockwood, Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia historian, editor 'Maritime Worker' and author 'Black Armada' (1975), 'War on the Waterfront' (1982), 'Ship to Shore' (1990) | publication-date=2014-09-01 | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/191524358 | access-date=30 June 2022}}</ref>
==WWF Hall and Film Unit== Waterside Workers' Federation Film Unit was established in 1953 by Norma Disher, Keith Gow and Jock Levy.<ref name=dos>{{cite web | last=Milner | first=Lisa | title=The Wharfies' Film Unit | website=The Dictionary of Sydney | date=2014| url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/the_wharfies_film_unit | access-date=21 November 2022}}</ref> It was based at the Waterside Workers' Federation Hall located at 60 Sussex Street, which also became the venue for productions by the New Theatre from 1954 to 1962. In 1995 a production by Adelaide's Vitalstatistix theatre company was performed at this venue.<ref>{{cite web | title=Waterside Workers' Federation Hall | website=AusStage | url=https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/venue/3737 | access-date=21 November 2022| quote=Venue used by New Theatre 1954-1962.}}</ref>
The film unit made several films on waterfront working conditions and events. Some of these films, such as ''The Hungry Mile'', have become documentary classics. The union also commissioned artists, such as Roy Dalgarno, to document the people and conditions on the waterfront. After five years of production, the work of the unit ended in 1958.<ref name=Milner>Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, by Lisa Milner, [http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-4-no-2/filmwork/ Fighting Through Their Filmwork – The Waterside Workers’ Federation Film Unit]</ref><ref name=dos/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{WWF Secretaries}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Defunct trade unions of Australia Category:1902 establishments in Australia Category:Trade unions established in 1902 Category:1993 disestablishments in Australia Category:Trade unions disestablished in 1993 Category:Maritime history of Australia