Railway trade unions in Australia explained

Railway Unions in Australia organised labour of railway employees in Australia operated under federal and State awards - this is a partial list of known unions. Many of the unions amalgamated over time, creating a complex trail of ancestry for some of the later unions.

Federal Award unions

The following unions were based on federal - Australian wide awards ^[1]

• Association of Railway Professional Officers of Australia (1921 -)
• Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen
• Australian Rail Tram & Bus Industry Union, RTBU (1993 -)
• Australian Railways Union, ARU (1921 - 1993)^[2]
• Australian Tramway and Motor Omnibus Employees' Association
• Australian Transport Officers' Federation
• Commonwealth Engine Drivers & Firemens Association of Australia (1918 - 1925)
• Commonwealth Railway Officers Association (1917 - 1950)
• Federated Tramways Officers Association (1920 - 1949)
• National Union of Rail Workers of Australia (1982 - 1993)

New South Wales

• Australian Railways Union - N.S.W. Branch

South Australia

• Australian Railways Union - South Australian Branch
• Australasian Society of Engineers - South Australia

Tasmania

• Australian Railways Union - Tasmanian Branch

Victoria

• Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen (Victorian Division)
• Australian Railways Union - Victoria
• Victorian Railways Transportation Employees Association (1906 - 1950)
• Train & Locomotive Drivers Association of Victoria (2017 -)

Western Australia

Some of the following unions were the railway related unions in Western Australia.^[3]

• • Association of Draughting, Supervisory and Technical Employees Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees (see below, Western Australian...)
• Australian Railways Union (Western Australian Branch)
• Railway Industry Council
• Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union
• Western Australian Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees' Union of Workers
• Western Australian Association of State Railway Employees
• Locomotive Engine Drivers’ Firemen's and Cleaners’ Union of Western Australia
  • (earlier known as West Australian Locomotive Engine Drivers' Firemen's and Cleaners' Union of Workers)
• West Australian Railway Officers’ Union
• Western Australian Railway Unions Joint Executive
• West Australian Vehicle Builders’ Industrial Union of Workers

Records and archives

The Noel Butlin Archives Centre at Australian National University is one of the more significant repositories of railway union records in Australia ^[4]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Parties to the Award, Pedigree Charts ~ Federally Registered Trade Unions, page 41 .
2. The Australian Railways Union formed in September 1920 with the amalgamation of the Queensland Railways Union, the New South Wales Amalgamated Railway and Tramway Service Association, the Victorian Railway Union, the Railway and Tramway Employees Association of South Australia and the Tasmanian Railway Union. It was the first Australian all-grades organisation of railway workers and was federally registered on 8 February 1921. In 1993 the ARU merged with other unions to form the Rail Tram & Bus Industry Union. - see http://archives-dev.anu.edu.au/icaatom-1.3.0/index.php/australian-railways-union-tasmanian-branch-deposit-2;isad
3. Found listed at Transport industry union records, 1899-2001 [manuscript] in Battye Library at http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/record=b1720572
4. http://archives-dev.anu.edu.au/icaatom-1.3.0/index.php/noel-butlin-archives-centre;isdiah