Why our union grew when others declined
In 2008, Terry Wilson, drawing on over 30 years’ experience in Catholic education negotiations, completed a thesis on why the VIEU – the largest predecessor of IEU Victoria Tasmania – had achieved what few Australian unions managed between 1994 and 2004: growth.
Mechanics’ Institutes: building for culture
Mechanics’ institutes helped educate workers but also provided a model for setting up community facilities and amenities.
Unionism in Their Blood: The Prichard Family and the IEU
While preparing an article on IEU families for our professional journal IE, we came to appreciate the significant contribution the Prichard family has made to education, our union, and the broader union movement.
IEU Labour history: Australia’s pioneering undercover social justice journalists
Some of the world’s first investigative journalists were Australian women, and their groundbreaking work exposed social injustices and drove long-overdue reforms.
Victorian Trades Hall: The People’s Palace
The Victorian Trades Hall building on Lygon Street Carlton is the Town Hall of the working class. It’s the world’s oldest continually functioning trade union building, dating back to 1859.
Liam Byrne’s history of Australian union action hits the shelves
This powerful book is a timely reminder of the essential role unions have played in shaping modern Australia.
IEU pays tribute to pioneering sportsman, unionist, and teacher Peter Bevilacqua
The IEU is honouring the contributions of longtime education unionist Peter Bevilacqua, who passed away on 3 March at the age of 91 and was farewelled in Hobart in mid-March.
Zelda D’Aprano: smashing the bronze ceiling
A campaign targets the deplorable fact that less than 4% Australia’s statues represent historical female figures.
From IE: Unions and schools are history waiting to happen
It’s never too late to start recording your precious heritage. Three historians explain why the past matters so much and how it can inform our present.
IEU Labour History column: The bark petitions that changed Australia
The Yirrkala bark petition was the first formally recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander document tabled in the Australian Parliament.
Liam Byrne is about to deliver the definitive Australian union history
ACTU historian Liam Byrne is about to release an important new book, No Power Greater: A History of Union Action in Australia, which “gets to the heart of what it means to be a unionist”.
Liam Byrne, the Australian union movement’s historian
‘Without our history, how do we know who we are?’ asks Dr Liam Byrne, who has been the ACTU Historian since 2019.
IEU Labour History: Anna Stewart, the woman who inspired a generation of female unionists
Anna Stewart was was never one to take the easy path or to shirk a fight.
Denis Matson on the IEU’s campaign in Tasmania, 2014
Former IEU Senior Industrial Officer Denis Matson helped spearhead the 2014 Tasmanian Catholic school campaign and still has the beanies to prove it!
‘Fed up but not giving up’: The first IEU Tasmania industrial action in 2014
In the winter of 2014, IEU members rugged up for rallies in the chilly winter streets of Launceston, Hobart, and Burnie, frustrated by a breakdown in negotiations for a new Agreement.
‘Who sailed the ship?’ Wendy Lowenstein, Australia’s historian of the worker
Wendy Lowenstein’s ground-breaking interviews and books remind us no-one’s life is all that ordinary, everyone has a story to tell and you can learn as much about a society from talking to its poorest and most humble citizens as to the rich and famous.
From The Point: IEU member’s link to the fight for the eight-hour work day
The great grandfather of a current IEU member played a key role in the ongoing union push to extend the eight-hour day beyond the building trades.
Labour Day: where it came from and why it matters
The Labour Day public holiday has its origins in one of the union movement’s most momentous victories.
Let’s get Women of Steel into schools
Binged Succession and searching for viewing options? Try this award-winning documentary about the historic 14-year fought by women to gain the right to work at the Wollongong steelworks.