Union History
The CFMEU WA - Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Western Australia
The CFMEU had its genesis in the old Builders Labourers Union. The Builders Labourers are a long established union in Western Australia. They were first organised in 1902 under the name Perth Builders Labourers Union but organisation was not continuous until 1913 when the Metropolitan Builders Labourers Union registered at arbitration; although the Hod Carriers Union existed in the intervening years.
The name was later changed to the Australian Builders Labourers Federated Union of Workers (WA Branch). In 1969 the State Union affiliated with the Australian Building Construction Employees and Builders Labourers Federation, a move which then branch secretary Norm Hayter worked hard to achieve.
Since those early days in 1902 numerous unions, operating both nationally and here in Western Australia have merged into what is today known as the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union - The CFMEU.
Since 1913 Unions which merged or were amalgamated to become today's CFMEU (WA) include;
Builders Labourers Federation- Building Workers Industrial Union
- Operative Painters and Decorators Union
- Operative Plasters Union
- Australian Timbers Workers Union
- United Mine Workers Union of Australia
- Bricklayers and Rubble Wallers Union
- Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners
- Operative Stone Masons Union
The Birth of One Big Union
Some building unionists also recognised the value of having one, strong industrial union to secure a better bargaining position for workers on construction sites. Internationally, the idea of a single union to represent all workers from a particular industry had taken hold in the US and some parts of Europe from the beginning of the 20th century. Australia followed suit but the achievement of an industrial union for the building industry was a long and difficult job.
Bricklayers, Builders' Labourers, Carpenters and Plasterers agreed to form a single union in 1922. But it was not until 1942 that bricklayers and carpenters effectively amalgamated to form the Building Workers Industrial Union, which became a federal organisation in 1943.
Over the following decades, work continued on the formation of one union for the industry with the gradual amalgamation of some of the other building craft unions with the BWIU. For example, the Victorian Tile layers amalgamated in 1964 and Stonemasons in 1965. In WA, the Bricklayers amalgamated with the BWIU in 1968. SA bricklayers decided to form a Branch of the BWIU in 1968. Qld stonemasons and BWIU amalgamated with the bricklayers in 1973. Nationally, the BWIU, the Plasterers Federation and the Operative Painters and Decorators Union also began working on amalgamation from 1966.
However, the emergence of strong industrial unions in the metal industry was already perceived as a threat by the Conservative Government of the early 1970s. As a result new legislation was enacted preventing any reasonably sized unions from amalgamating. Large unions could only amalgamate with small organisations.
At its 1989 biennial congress the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) determined a policy for the future structure of trade unions in Australia. Broadly, the new policy encouraged unions to amalgamate, with the intention of consolidating their human and financial resources to form better resourced, larger, industrial unions.
So it was not until the early 1990s that we saw the emergence of One Big Union for the construction industry, the CFMEU Construction & General Division - with a federal structure and representation in every State and Territory.
Prior to amalgamation there were numerous unions spread across construction, forestry, mining and energy industries. Those unions amalgamated along industry lines to form each of the divisions of the CFMEU. Each division operates autonomously, with its own membership, executive, resources, industry policies and campaigns.
