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:
“Beyond the horizon, or even the knowledge, of the cities along the coast, a great, creative impulse is at work—the only thing, after all, that gives this continent meaning and a guarantee of the future. Every Australian ought to climb up here, once in a way, and glimpse the various, manifold life of which he is a part.”
—Vance Palmer (1885–1959)
““To be born woman is to know—
Although they do not talk of it at school—
That we must labour to be beautiful.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“She had to lean away.
She dared not stir a foot,
Lest movement should provoke
The demon of pursuit
That slumbers in a brute.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)