| Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Society of Australia | |
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| Merger: | Boilermakers' Society of Australia Blacksmiths' Society of Australia |
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| Location Country: | Australia |
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The Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Society of Australia (BBS) was an Australian trade union representing boilermakers and blacksmiths between 1965 and 1972.
It was established on 1 January 1966 with the amalgamation of the Boilermakers' Society of Australia and the Blacksmiths' Society of Australia. Though widely described as the formation of a new union, it inherited the industrial registration of the Boilermakers' Society. The union was associated with a "militant left-wing" group within the Metal Trades Federation.[1] [2] [3] [4]
The BBS was the principal union involved in the 1971 Harco work-in, in which rank-and-file workers seized control of a heavy engineering factory in the Sydney suburb of Campbelltown to protest the sacking of five boilermakers. The workers, inspired by the example of 'work-ins' at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders in the UK and French car workers during the May 68 of 1968, occupied the factory for a period of four weeks.[5]
It amalgamated with the Sheet Metal Working Industrial Union of Australia and the Amalgamated Engineering Union in 1972 and ceased to exist at that time; however, due to legal issues over the name of the new union, the successor Amalgamated Metal Workers Union was not registered until 1973.[6] [7]