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 1880s, and currently has approximately 100,000 members. It has exercised an influence on the Australian trade union movement, and on the Australian Labor Party throughout its history.

History

The AWU grew from a number of earlier unions, notably the Australasian Shearers' Union, founded by William Spence, Alexander Poynton (OBE, an inaugural member of the Australian House of Representatives), brother Charles Poynton, and David Temple in Creswick, Victoria in 1886. This union joined with shearers' unions in Bourke and Wagga in New South Wales to form the Amalgamated Shearers Union of Australia in 1887. In 1894 this union amalgamated with the General Labourers Union, which had formed in 1891, to form the Australian Workers' Union.

The Queensland Shearers Union, formed in 1887, and the Queensland Workers Union merged in 1891 to form the Amalgamated Workers Union of Queensland. In 1904 the AWUQ amalgamated with the AWU, to form a union with a combined membership of 34,000.

Workers' Union

The Workers' Union was a trade union in the United Kingdom.

Founded in 1898, in 1919 the Workers' Union joined the National Amalgamated Workers Union, a loose confederation Municipal Employees Association and the National Amalgamated Union of Labour, but this dissolved in 1922.

Membership of the union collapsed during the 1920s, with job losses due to the depression, the General Strike of 1926 and disputes over payments to members of the executive committee. In 1929, it merged into the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), with about 100,000 members remaining to transfer. This enabled the TGWU, for the first time, to gain significant numbers of members outside of the docks and transport industries.

General Secretaries

References

External links

See also

Workers' Union (Faroe Islands)

The Workers' Union (Faroese: Verkamannafylkingin, VMF) was a political party in the Faroe Islands.

History

The party won three seats in the 1994 elections, taken by Óli Jacobsen, Kristian Magnussen and Ingeborg Vinther. It joined the governing coalition, with Jacobsen, Magnussen and Axel H. Nolsøe serving as Ministers. However, it lost all three seats in the 1998 elections, when it received just 215 votes.

References

Armenian Workers Union

Armenian Workers Union was a political party in Armenia founded in 1999. On July 7, 2003, the party merged into the United Communist Party of Armenia.