1-12-1948 The long ACTU-led campaign to win more time off for workers led to the imposition of the 40-hour work week and the 2-day weekend. [more]
15-12-1882 Tailoresses' Association of Melbourne, Australia's first women's trade union, established. [more]
17-12-1918 A march of members of the Australian Workers Union forces the resignation of the Administrator of the Northern Territory, John Gilruth. [more]
21-12-1916 The Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World) are outlawed. [more]
23-12-1928 An industrial court decides that timber workers must increase their weekly working hours from 44 to 48, a decision that sparks a 6 month long strike. [more]
29-12-1884 Edward Theodore, founder of Amalgamated Workers’ Assn & forerunner of Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), is born. [more]
31-12-1968 John Smith Garden, Australian trade unionist & founding member of Communist Party of Australia, dies. [more]