ARE SOCIAL ISSUE WHEN unions make a stand on a social issue there's often a discourse about whether it's something a union should be involving itself in, but this is at the heart of what unions have done for nearly 200 years in Australia. In the 1830s unions started to form in Australia due in part to the passing of the NSW Masters’ and Servants Act [1828], which gave colonial authorities the right to prosecute someone who refused to work. This happened because it was a social injustice and workers had to unite with each other to successfully fight back. In the 1850s Australia saw the boom of the Victorian gold rush, but conditions
on the gold fields were terrible as miners couldn't own the land they lived on, were forced by the police to pay extremely high rates for licenses and were denied the right to vote. Miners responded by banding together and on 3 December 1854 we saw the Eureka Stockade rebellion at Ballarat. The diggers lost the battle but just 12 months later reform passed through parliament to address most of the issues raised by the rebellion. Through the late 1800s into the 1900s we saw unions fight for so many things we now enjoy and take for granted - an 8 hour workday, paid annual leave, penalty rates, equal pay for women, sick leave, long service
leave, superannuation, redundancy pay, allowances, meal breaks and rest breaks. But while unions kept fighting for their members to win greater rights at work they never strayed from raising their voices over social injustices and causes that may not have directly affected some or any of their workers. In the late 1960s the Australian trade union movement stood up against the racial injustices in South Africa and strongly denounced apartheid with several unions sending support via APHEDA (Union Aid Abroad) and taking industrial action against the regime by blocking South African ships and refusing to send goods over that would support the regime.
