Australian Rail Tram and Bus Union (Victorian branch)

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union Victorian Branch or RTBU Victoria is the state branch of the RTBU in Victoria. Originally formed in 1993 as the Victorian branch of the Public Transport Union (an amalgamation of several smaller trade unions representing workers in public transport industries) and renamed the RTBU in 1998, the RTBU Victoria today represents nearly 8000 members across Rail Operations, Tramways, Locomotive, Infrastructure and Administrative areas of Victoria's public transport industry.

Beginnings and original affiliates

The formation of Rail, Tram & Bus Union in 1998, formed as the Public Transport Union five years earlier, was the product of several older public transport unions amalgamating together in Victoria and nationally. Each of these unions had their own unique history and traditions prior to amalgamation.

Australian Railways Union

The Australian Railways Union (ARU) represented workers in railways and transport and was the largest of the public transport unions amalgamating into the PTU. Prior to unifying as a national union in 1921, the first rail workers’ union was the Victorian Railways Union (VRU) formed in 1911.Butler-Bowdon, Eddie. In the Service? A history of the Victorian railway workers and their union (Melbourne: Hyland House, 1991), p 27. The VRU was unique as the first ever industry-wide union formed in Australia for all workers in the railways including drivers, station staff, labourers and maintenance workers.

The Victorian ARU's headquarters from 1916 was the historical Unity Hall building on 636 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Unity Hall served as a meeting place both for the ARU and the Victorian union movement for much of the 20th century until it was sold in 1999 due to financial burdens suffered by the union in the Kennett era. The building remains a heritage-listed site.“Unity Hall”, On my Doorstep website,

The Victorian ARU was controlled by left-wing and militant forces in the labour movement virtually from its outset, coming under the control of unionists aligned with the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in the 1930s, and remained so for much of its existenceIn the Service?, p 106. – the ARU's political alignments under the CPA were such that it disaffiliated from the Australian Labor Party in 1943Strangio, Paul. Neither Power nor Glory: 100 Years of Political Labor in Victoria, 1856–1870 (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press), 2012, p 253. for what it perceived as the party's unsatisfactory policies on employment in the railways before re-affiliating in 1953.

National Union of Rail Workers

The National Union of Rail Workers of Australia (NURWA) also represented train drivers and rail workers. The union originally registered under the name National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) in March 1933 before being de-registered four months later.“The National Union of Rail Workers (1982–1993)”, Australian Trade Union Archives, http://www.atua.org.au/biogs/ALE0652b.htm The NUR later revived itself in December 1938 and proceeded to merge with several smaller craft unions, including the Government Railways Transport Staff Association, the Department of Main Roads Employees’ Union and the Government Tramway Electrical Branch Workers’ Association.“National Union of Rail Workers of Australia”, ANU Archives, http://archivescollection.anu.edu.au/index.php/national-union-of-railworkers-of-australia The NUR renamed itself the National Union of Rail Workers of Australia in 1982 and continued under this name until amalgamation in 1993. The NURWA was a relatively small union compared with the ARU with a national membership of a few hundred by 1993.

Australian Tramways & Motor Omnibus Employees’ Association

The Australian Tramways & Motor Omnibus Employees’ Association (AT&MOEA or ATMOEA) represented drivers and conductors in the tramways. The union was formed in 1910 as the Australian Tramways’ Employees Association before changing its title to ATMOEA in 1934.“Australian Tramway & Motor Omnibus Employees’ Association (ii) (19501-1993)”, Australian Trade Union Archives, http://www.atua.org.au/biogs/ALE0272b.htm Like the ARU, the ATMOEA in Victoria was politically dominated by the CPA – when the party split in 1964 over allegiances to the Soviet Union or People's Republic of China, the ATMOEA's Victorian leadership became aligned with the pro-Beijing and Maoist Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) or CPA-ML.Jones, Russell. “Clarrie O’Shea – Hero or villain?”, Friends of Hawthorn Tram Depot, last modified June 2008, http://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/papers/oshea.htm The ATMOEA was briefly de-registered in 1950 but re-formed under the same name that year.Australian Trade Union Archives, http://www.atua.org.au/biogs/ALE0272b.htm

Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen

The Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen (AFULE) represented locomotive drivers and crew in Australia from the 1920s. Locomotive enginemen originally organised alongside firemen as craft unions, with the first in Australia being the Victorian Locomotive Engine Drivers’ Association formed in 1861. The idea of a federated national body for enginemen was first proposed at a Victorian Conference of locomotive associations in 1886, which eventually occurred at the turn of the century with the formation of the Federated Locomotive Enginemen's Association of Australasia. This was renamed the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen in 1920. The Victorian Locomotive Engine Drivers’ Association opted not to ballot its members on whether to amalgamate into the industry-wide VRU in 1911. The Association and later Victorian AFULE therefore remained a separate union from the ARU in Victoria for most of the 20th century. In 1993 the AFULE in Victoria and all other states and territories except Queensland voted to amalgamate into the PTU."History", Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees website, http://www.afule.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=18“Locomotive Engine Drivers & Firemens Association (1872–1900)”, Australian Trade Union Archives, http://www.atua.org.au/biogs/ALE1139b.htm“History”, Rail, Tram & Bus Union Victorian Locomotive Division website, In the Service?, p 27.

History

Early 20th century

The development of rail lines in Victoria began around the middle of the 19th century, with the state government monopolising control of the railways in 1856.In the Service?, p 5. Significant expansion of railroads in the 1880s lead to a surge of those employed on the railway lines, including engine drivers, station masters and staff, clerks, labourers and gangers. These workers soon organised themselves into employees’ associations and craft unions (i.e. unions representing workers of a particular skill-set or grade, often within the same industry).

Victorian Railways Union

For most of the 19th century, the existence of separate craft unions for employees in the Victorian railways was the norm, with train drivers and crew, signalmen, shunters, station masters, staff and rail labourers all organised into different unions based on their grade of work.In the Service?, p 19. That owed a great deal to the hierarchical nature of employment on the railways, with differences being especially pronounced between locomotive drivers, station staff and clerks, and "unskilled" workers. That invariably led to different scales of pay and complex bargaining for different groups of workers, and convinced many of the need for an industry-wide union. The first attempt at a united union occurred in 1884, when rail labourers formed an all-grades Mutual Services Association.In the Service? Labourers were the lowest-paid workers in the railways and hence the most committed to the benefits of an industry-wide union, but entrenched divisions between grades of workers made most other rail employees hesitant to join. The Association renamed itself the Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees (ASRE) in 1900.In the Service?, p 20.

With the onset of the 1890s Depression, and its effects upon their wages and security of work, the attitude of rail employees towards an industry-wide union began to shift. In 1903, the government of conservative Premier William Irvine sought to stifle the electoral threat of rail workers’ anger at pay cuts by passing of the Separate Representation Act. The Act barred railway employees from voting in their own electorates, instead being allotted two separate seats in State Parliament's lower house. The ensuing campaign to repeal the Act galvanised rail workers’ commitment to unionism and bolstered the ASRE's ranks.In the Service?, p 25-26. In July 1911, after a ballot of members on the question of an industry-wide union which resulted in a strongly affirmative opinion, the ASRE and all other craft unions in the railways, with the exception of the locomotive drivers' association, combined to form the Victorian Railways Union (VRU). The VRU supported the foundation of the Victorian Labour College in 1917, providing rooms for them to use. The VRU later became the Victorian branch of the Australian Railways Union (ARU) when railways unions from each state and territory unified nationally in 1921."Victorian Railways Union (1911–1921)", Australian Trade Union Archives, last modified 12 December 2002, http://www.atua.org.au/biogs/ALE0926b.htm

The VRU's first Secretary was Frank Hyett, an ardent socialist who, despite lacking a personal background in the railways, quickly established himself as an able and dedicated organiser for the union, proving highly effective in uniting the different associations and craft unions into the VRU. The Gazette, which was the newspaper of the VRU, and later the Victorian branch of the ARU, for nearly a century, carried the motto “Work and vote for Socialism”.In the Service?, ‘Note on Sources’.

The Victorian branch of the ARU was also notable for being one of the few left-wing unions in Australia to have been both captured and subsequently lost by anti-communist elements in the years leading up to the Australian Labor Party split of 1955. A Catholic-dominated and anti-communist Industrial Group ticket, led by shunter Jim Neill, mounted a successful campaign to oust the incumbent Communist Party of Australia (CPA) leadership at branch elections in the early 1950s, with Neill supplanting J.J. Brown as State Secretary in 1954. However, Brown and the CPA militants succeeded in reclaiming the Victorian branch from the Groupers by 1955, after which the Victorian ARU remained firmly under left-wing control.In the Service?, p 128-131.

Clarrie O’Shea and 1969 General Strike

One of the greatest episodes of industrial unrest in the post-World War II history of Australia's union movement took place in 1969 following the arrest and jailing of ATMOEA Victorian Secretary, Clarrie O’Shea for refusal to pay penal fines incurred for striking.

O’Shea, a Maoist aligned with the CPA (M-L), had pursued a campaign of consistent industrial militancy since being elected ATMOEA State Secretary in 1947 to defend and advance his members’ wages and conditions, sick leave and benefits. The strikes and work stoppages this entailed incurred heavy penal fines on the ATMOEA under the penal section of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act – this legislation had been introduced by the Commonwealth Government in 1951 in an effort to deter industrial action on the part of unions. Bans clauses introduced by the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission also existed at this time to deter strike action."Clarrie O’Shea – Hero or villain?" http://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/papers/oshea.htm