AWU celebrates 120 years as voice for the worker

AUSTRALIA'S oldest and largest union was born in a Ballarat pub in 1886. Union organiser William Spence and firebrand shearer David Temple, 24, mounted a campaign against pastoralists who had cut the shearers' pay from 20 shillings per 100 sheep to 17 shillings and sixpence. Responding to an advertisement in the local paper, 40 shearers signed up for the new shearers' union, which was to become the Australian Workers Union.

National secretary Bill Shorten told the rally that the AWU had seen off many conservative governments in its 120-year history, and the Howard Government would be next. "We'll be celebrating on election night when there's a change of government and these unfair industrial relations laws are consigned to the dustbin of history," he said.