National Union of Workers

NUW

Full name	National Union of Workers
Founded	1989
Members	90,000
Affiliation	ACTU, IUF ALP (excluding NSW branch)
Key people	Tim Kennedy, National Secretary
Office location	Melbourne, Victoria
Country	Australia
Website	www.nuw.org.au

The National Union of Workers (NUW) is an Australian trade union formed in 1989.

History

The National Union of Workers of Australia was formed by a progressive amalgamation of unions from 1989 onwards in a time when all Australian unions were merging, with varying degrees of success. These unions merged into the one larger union to pool their expertise and resources, so they could provide members with a larger range of quality services.

The six unions which form the NUW were established in the early part of last century and have been at the forefront of workers' achievements for nearly 100 years:

• Federated Storemen and Packers Union (Est. 1912)
• Federated Rubber and Allied Workers Union (Est. 1908)
• Federated Cold Storage and Meat Preserving Employees' Union (Est. 1908)
• Federated Millers and Manufacturing Grocers Union (Est. 1909)
• Commonwealth Foremen's Association (Est. 1912)
• United Sales Representatives and Commercial Travellers Guild (Est. 1888)

Coverage

NUW workers protest Howard's IR reforms in a 2005 rally in Sydney

The National Union of Workers covers workers in the following industries:

• Warehousing and distribution
• Food manufacturing
• Rubber, plastic and cable-making
• Dairy
• Cold storage
• Poultry, fish and game processing
• Skin and hide
• Wool
• Oil
• Pet food
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing
• Milling
• Market research
• Merchandising and sales representatives

Politics

The NUW is one of the most powerful unions in the Australian Labor Party and its national Labor Right faction.^[1] It is generally a member along with other right-wing unions of the various state Labor Right factions that make up the national Labor Right faction.^[2] However it makes up its own Labor Right faction in Victoria called Labor Action and in Queensland called Labor Unity (also known as the Old Guard).^[3][4]

References

External links