The Federated Ironworkers' Association of Australia (FIA) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1911 and 1991. It represented labourers and semi-skilled workers employed in the

steel industry Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high elastic modulus, yield strength, fracture strength and low raw material cost, steel is one of the ...

and

ironworking Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...

, and later also the

chemical industry The chemical industry comprises the companies and other organizations that develop and produce industrial, specialty and other chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, the chemical industry converts raw materials ( oil, natural gas, air, ...

History

Formation

The Federated Ironworkers' Assistants' Association of Australia was formed on 25 September 1908 at a meeting held at the

Sydney Trades Hall The Sydney Trades Hall, also known as the Trades Hall Building and the Trade Unions Hall, is a heritage-listed trade union building located at 4-10 Goulburn Street in the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government ...

, attended by delegates from several small state-based unions from

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, including the Amalgamated Ironworkers' Assistants' Union and the Amalgamated Society of Ironworkers' Assistants of Victoria. The newly formed FIA expanded its representation to

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

in the following year at its first full conference held in Melbourne in April 1909. The union received federal registration in 1911, despite objections raised by several tradesmen's

craft unions Craft unionism refers to a model of trade unionism in which workers are organised based on the particular craft or trade in which they work. It contrasts with industrial unionism, in which all workers in the same industry are organized into the sa ...

, including the

Federated Society of Boilermakers Federated may refer to: * Federated state, a constituent state within a federal state * Federated school, a model of administration in some educational institutions * Federated congregation, a type of religious congregation Computing * Federat ...

and the

Amalgamated Society of Engineers The Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE) was a major British trade union, representing factory workers and mechanics. History The history of the union can be traced back to the formation of the Journeymen Steam Engine, Machine Makers' and Mi ...

. These unions were concerned with preserving the distinction between their skilled members and the unskilled assistant ironworkers. The FIA resisted limiting their membership to assistant ironworkers following its recent amalgamation in January 1911 with the Eskbank Ironworkers' Association of Mill and Forge Workers, which represented workers at the G. & C. Hoskins steel mill at Lithgow.

Growth

Starting from a membership of approximately 5000 the union grew rapidly during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and also amalgamated with several smaller unions to reach a membership of close to 10,000 by the early 1920s, approximately 10 percent of total union membership in the Australian metal industry. Half the union's membership was from New South Wales, which was divided up into several branches, including Sydney, Lithgow,

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

and Granville. A new branch was formed in 1917 to represent ironworkers in the shipbuilding industry in Balmain. The FIA became increasingly militant during the first two decades of its existence, influenced by the debate over conscription in World War I, to which it was opposed, and the

Australian General Strike of 1917 Usually referred to as the "New South Wales General Strike", but referred to by contemporaries as "the Great Strike", it was in fact neither general nor confined to NSW. The strike was however a mass strike, involving around 100,000 workers, mostl ...

, which involved 3000 New South Wales ironworkers. During this period the FIA became influenced by the radical left-wing political ideas of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

(IWW), and in 1919 held a referendum over whether to affiliate to the proposed

general union A general union is a trade union (called ''labor union'' in American English) which represents workers from all industries and companies, rather than just one organisation or a particular sector, as in a craft union or industrial union. A gen ...

, the One Big Union (OBU). The proposal received 60 percent support from the membership, particularly in Sydney, but was not adopted by the 1920 Federal Council of the union. During the 1930s the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian communist party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been ...

(CPA) became heavily influential within the union. In 1936 Ernie Thornton, a member of the CPA's central committee, was elected part-time general secretary. Following the recovery of the economy in the late 1930s the position was made full-time and Thornton moved to Sydney, where he strengthened communist influence within the FIA. Thornton's leadership of the FIA was threatened in the 1949 union elections when the Balmain branch, backed by the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Industrial Groups The Industrial Groups were groups formed by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the late 1940s, by Catholic ALP members aligned with B. A. Santamaria's "Movement" within the ALP from 1944, to combat alleged Communist Party infiltration in the t ...

, ran a rival ticket headed by

Laurie Short Laurence Elwyn Short (15 December 1915 – 24 March 2009) was an Australian trade union leader and leading figure in the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Short was the national secretary of the Federated Ironworkers' Association (FIA), now part of ...

. Thornton won but Short took the case to the

Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration The Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration was an Australian court that operated from 1904 to 1956 with jurisdiction to hear and arbitrate interstate industrial disputes, and to make awards. It also had the judicial functions of i ...

, which found that "persons unknown" had rigged the ballot, leaving Short as National Secretary. Thornton resigned in 1950 to become Australasia's representative at the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade union, trade unions established on October 3, 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the Int ...

(WFTU) liaison bureau in

Peking Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...

, but he was left without a job when the

Australian Council of Trade Unions The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated trade union, unions and eight t ...

withdrew recognition of the WFTU. The FIA refused to accept him back and Thornton was employed full-time by the Communist Party. Laurie Short, a staunch anti-communist, was national secretary of the union from 1951 to 1982. In 1983, FIA unsuccessfully sought re-affiliation with the Labor Party, which it had severed during the

Australian Labor Party split of 1955 The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was a split within the Australian Labor Party along ethnocultural lines and about the position towards communism. Key players in the split were the federal opposition leader H. V. "Doc" Evatt and B. A. ...

. The union ultimately rejoined the Labor Party through its merger with the ALP-affiliated

Australian Workers Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 members. Acc ...

(AWU) in 1993.

Amalgamation

The union underwent several amalgamations, absorbing the Arms, Explosives and Munitions Workers' Federation in 1943, and later the Federated Artificial Fertiliser and Chemical Workers' Union of Australia in 1975, extending the union's coverage to the chemical industry. The FIA merged with the

Australasian Society of Engineers The Australasian Society of Engineers (ASE) was an Australian trade union active from 1890 to 1991. It was eventually incorporated into the Australian Workers' Union (AWU). History In 1890, the Australasian Society of Engineers was established a ...

in 1991 to form the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Employees. This new union absorbed several small manufacturing unions before itself merging into the Australian Workers Union in 1993. The AWU continues to represent workers covered by the FIA.

References

External links