Trade Unionist Bill Marklew was appointed Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) in Queensland in 2000. He has been a member of the CPSU since 1994 and played a key role in the organisation of the picket line during the Maritine Union of Australia dispute in Townsville as well as the Our Rights at Work Campaign in Brisbane.
Robert (Uncle Bob) Anderson was the first Indigenous Australian to work as the State Organiser for the Building Workers Industrial Union (later amalgamated with other unions into the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union) from 1963 to 1978. He took an active part in many industrial disputes including the Mount Isa Copper Mine Lock-Out 1964-65, mines in Papua New Guinea in the late 1960s, and the controversial South African Springboks rugby tour in 1971.
Trade Unionist Darryl Noack was the North Queensland District Secretary of the Australian Workers Union (AWU) from 2008. He was an elected shop steward of the Federated Ironworkers Association from 1973-79, before serving as a delegate in 1979. He then moved to the Australian Workers Union where he served first as a representative in North Queensland in 1988, before his appointment as a full time AWU organiser in 1993. He reflects on industrial conflict, Indigenous participation and the changing nature of unionism.
Union official and academic Diane Zetlin has worked in an academic capacity at the University of Queensland since 1976. She became involved with the Federated Australian University Staff Association (FAUSA) as President, and was involved in the amalgamation of unions to form the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), of which she later became General Secretary. Her career has spanned radical changes in political and social attitudes, and she discusses changing conditions for tertiary workers and the role of women in trade unions.
George Britten was a Plumbers Union delegate across various workplaces in Mount Isa, Townsville and Brisbane from 1950 until the mid-1980s. He was a member of the Communist Party of Australia. He reflects on the changing nature of unionism in Queensland and his involvement in industrial campaigns including the Springboks tour of 1971, the Plumbers Union campaign for the 38 hour week in 1982 and the strike calling for the Federal Award to apply in Queensland from 1976-79.
Unionist and State Labor politician Grace Grace was the first woman General Secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions, serving from 2000-07. Prior to working in this position, Grace served in several union positions as well as being an advisor to Gary Johns, Assistant Industrial Relations Minister in the Keating federal government. Following the retirement of Premier Peter Beattie in 2007, Grace campaigned for and won the State electorate of Brisbane Central in a by-election and held the seat for the ALP until 2012.
Howard Guille was the Queensland State Secretary for the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) from 1993 to 2006 and was involved in the 1993 amalgamation of academic unions which formed the NTEU. During his union career he was involved in enterprise bargaining, the Indigenous Stolen Wages Campaign and the Papua New Guinea National Minimum Wage Case.
Trade Unionist Jack Hutton, as a delegate for the Boilermakers and Blacksmiths Union (later the Amalgamated Metal Workers Union) from 1951-91, was the longest serving Trades and Labour Council member in Australia. He reflects on his many years of union involvement, from the railways in Townsville to the Burdekin Bridge, and recalls the events and personalities which shaped his career.
Unionist Janice Mayes was the President of the Federated Clerks Union, later the Australian Services Union, from 1990, and member of the union's national executive until 2006. As a union official, Mayes has worked on various industrial campaigns including workplace bullying, unpaid overtime, privitisation, and issues relating to women.
Unionist John Battams was the General Secretary of the Queensland Teachers Union for 21 years, from 1990-2011. A member of the QTU since 1976, he has been part of and witnessed many changes within the QTU and the teaching sector including the transformation of the QTU from a conservative, letter-writing organisation to a dynamic union. John Battams has been President of the Queensland Council of Unions since 2009.
Trade Unionist Kevin Carroll has been a member of the Building Workers Industrial Union (amalgamated into the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in 1991) since 1965, and has held prominent roles within both the BWIU and the Trades and Labor Council. He discusses his career within the building and construction industry, and highlights some of the key challenges facing the union movement.
Mary Kelly was President of the Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) from 1986 until 1994. Only the second woman to ever lead the QTU, and the first to do so full-time, she had been a longstanding executive member of the union. In both of these capacities, she worked to improve conditions for all involved in education, but for women teachers and students particularly. She was the Vice-President of the Australian Education Union, an active member of the Working Woman's Charter Committee, and one of the first women executive members of the Trades and Labor Council.
Queensland Trade Unionist Michael Weise has been a member of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) in the Mining and Energy division since 1989. He discusses his career within the union, as well as significant CFMEU campaigns and efforts such as the re-unionisation of the Pilbara mining region in Western Australia and the Let's Spread it Around campaign.
Stan Heilbron is a member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). He is notable for his work in the Townsville community as a member of the Federated Clerks Union (FCU), Secretary of the Gulliver Progress Association and as a member of the Parents and Citizens Association. He was involved in many social issues including public transport and housing.
Trade Unionist Vince Dobinson was elected as a delegate of the Queensland branch of the Builders Labourers Federation in 1959, serving as an organiser 1962-72. He was elected as State Secretary from 1972-90. At federal level, he was the President of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation from 1974 until its deregistration in 1986. He reflects on his roles at both a state and federal level, discussing the changing nature of the construction industry and unionism within Queensland.
Trade Unionist Wallace Trohear was a member of the Building Workers Industrial Union (amalgamated into the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in 1991) from 1973 to 2006. During that time he held a number of key positions in the union, including Queensland State Secretary from 1987-2006. He reflects on his many years experience in the building and construction industry and discusses the issues and challenges he faced during his career, from wage disputes to royal commissions.
Trade Unionist Walter Threlfall became Assistant State Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) in 1983. He discusses his time as an ETU member and official from 1972 until the mid-1990s in North Queensland, with particular reference to the infamous SEQEB dispute of the Bjelke-Petersen era and the Mount Isa Mine lockout.
