The Australian labour movement has its origins in the early 19th century and includes both trade unions and political activity. At its broadest, the movement can be defined as encompassing the industrial wing, the unions in Australia, and the political wing, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and minor parties.
Almost all unions in Australia are affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). These unions are commonly the product of a significant process of amalgamation undertaken in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Read more about Australian Labour Movement: Early History, Growth of The Trade and Industrial Unions, Governments, The Labour Movement and World War I, The Labour Movement in The 1920s, Depression and Attacks On Unions, Second World War and After, Industrial Relations Changes in 2005
Famous quotes containing the words australian, labour and/or movement:
“The Australian mind, I can state with authority, is easily boggled.”
—Charles Osborne (b. 1927)
“They shift coffee-houses and chocolate-houses from hour to hour, to get over the insupportable labour of doing nothing.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“What stunned me was the regular assertion that feminists were “anti-family.” . . . It was motherhood that got me into the movement in the first place. I became an activist after recognizing how excruciatingly personal the political was to me and my sons. It was the women’s movement that put self-esteem back into “just a housewife,” rescuing our intelligence from the junk pile of “instinct” and making it human, deliberate, powerful.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)