Australian Railways Union | |
| Merged into | Public Transport Union |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1920 |
| Dissolved | 1 March 1993 |
| Headquarters | 377 Sussex Street, Sydney |
| Location | |
| Members | 50,000 (1976) |
| Affiliations | ACTU, ALP |
The Australian Railways Union (ARU) was an Australian trade union in existence from 1920 to 1993. The ARU was an industrial union, representing all types of workers employed in the rail industry, excluding locomotive enginedrivers and tradesmen in craft areas.
History
It was formed in September 1920, through the amalgamation of state-based unions in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania, and was federally registered as a union on 8 February 1921. In 1976, it supported the anti-nuclear movement by carrying out a national strike, which halted the transport of uranium.[1] It merged with three other public transport unions in 1993 to form the Australian Rail Tram & Bus Industry Union.[2][3]
References
- ↑ Schoolmeester, Kelly (30 September 2021). "Australians Campaign against Nuclear Power and Uranium Mining, 1974-1988". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
- ↑ "Australian Railways Union (1921 - 1993)". Australian Trade Union Archives. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
- ↑ "Australian Railways Union". Noel Butlin Archives Centre. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
Further reading
- Bowden, Bradley. "Labor history, railroads, and Australia, 1880–1900." Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Business and Management (2019). online
- Cribb, Margaret Bridson. "The ARU in Queensland: some oral history." Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History 22 (1972): 13-22.
- Hearn, Mark. Working Lives: A History of the Australian Railways Union (NSW Branch) (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1990).
- Holt, Stephen James. " 'A Veritable Dynamo': Lloyd Ross, the Australian Railways Union and Left-Wing Politics in Inter-War Australia" (PhD dissertation, Australian National University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1988. 28819427), Online at academic libraries.
- Jacobsen, Dale Lorna. "The ALP and the ARU: How personal vendettas can bring down a government." Queensland Journal of Labour History 2 (2006): 28-45.
- Oliver, Bobbie. "The Impact of Union Amalgamation on Membership: An Australian Case Study." SAGE Open 6.3 (2016): 2158244016658086. online, on 1993 merger
- Patmore, G. E. "The origins of the National Union of Railwaymen." Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History 43 (1982): 44-52.
- Rowe, Denis. "The Robust Navvy: The Railway Construction Worker in Northern New South Wales, 1854–1894." Labour History (1980): 28–46. in JSTOR
- Stark, Joseph. "The Australian Railways Union and Rank-and-File Democracy in New South Wales, 1925–60." Labour History 128 (2025): 109-130.