The Amalgamated Shearers’ Union

In the growth of the power of organized labor during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the men of the shearing sheds took a leading part.

The unsatisfactory conditions of the industry - lost time spent in “swagging it” from shed to shed, the uncertain rates of pay, the lack of proper quarters and reasonable amenities, the high cost of rations called for action on the part of the shearers, and in 1886, as a result of concerted action of New South Wales graziers to reduce the shearing rate from 17shillings 6d. to 15s. Per 100 - inevitably led to the Amalgamated Shearers’ Union being formed.

This was the principal forerunner of the Australian Workers’ Union (1894), an organization which has had a profound effect on the pastoral industry. The activities of the Shearers’ Union met with extreme hostility on the part of the graziers, who, in 1891, formed the Pastoralists’ Union of New South Wales (later, in 1917, to be changed to the Graziers’ Association of New South Wales). The graziers insisted on “freedom of contract” in regard to their hiring of shearers, whilst the unionists did their utmost to keep non-unionists from the sheds.

The clash of interests resulted in two great strikes in 1891 and 1894. The disputes became extremely bitter at times, particularly in Queensland where some unionists resorted to arson, sabotage, and intimidation by armed force. The Queensland Government was forced to send troops and mounted police to the troubled areas and many strikers were arrested and sentenced to imprisonment.

Arbitration and Rates of Pay. Attempts to stabilize the industry by conferences and agreements, between the various pastoralists’ organizations on the one hand and the Australian Workers’ Union (A.W.U.) on the other, were only partially successful, and further serious trouble threatened in 1902. These disputes were very costly to employer and employee alike, and the arbitration system was welcomed as a far more satisfactory way of settling differences. In 1904 the A.W.U. became a united body throughout Australia, and in 1907 the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, presided over by Justice O’Connor, made its first shearing award.

This award, which was binding on all members of the Australian Workers’ Union and the leading graziers’ organizations in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, was to operate for three years after its date of making. It laid down the shearing rate (24s. per 100 for flock sheep), the piece-work rate for wool-pressers, and the weekly wage-scale for shedhands. Forty- eight hours per week, spread over 5 and a half days, were to be worked. The award also dealt with such matters as hut accommodation, the keeping of shearers’ horses, allocation of pens, and cost of stores; it even gave a ruling on the thorny subject of shearing wet sheep.

Succeeding awards have varied the rates 0f payment and the hours to be worked. In 1922 the hours were reduced to 44 per week, and in 1947 to 40, limited to five days. Conditions for the shed employees generally have been improved greatly during the last few years. Accommodation and amenities must conform to the provisions of such legislation as, in New South Wales, the Rural Workers’ Accommodation Act, 1926-5 1, which is under the supervision of officers from the Department of Labor and Industry. The bunkhouses of earlier years are on the way out, and the present- day shearer shares a room with only one other man. Stretchers have replaced wooden bunks, and suitable bedding must be provided.

Many shearers travel by their own cars and air transport is often used for the longer journeys. The shearing rate is decided by a Conciliation Commissioner and in some cases is subject to automatic variation according to the Arbitration Court’s retail price index.

Contract and Co-operative Shearing. Contract shearing was inaugurated in the late nineteenth century and developed largely after the first award. Under this system the sheep-owner pays a contractor a certain sum per sheep shorn, for which the latter supplies all the personnel necessary to carry out the shearing and packing of the wool.

Many hundreds of millions of sheep have been shorn by this arrangement; but it has various defects, the most obvious being the tendency, especially apparent in the early days, to sacrifice care in the handling of the sheep and their wool for the sake of speed.

Shortly after World War I co-operative shearing was inaugurated and it has made considerable expansion since. By this method, the co-operative company arranges for the shed employees, and the grazier pays their cost plus an over-riding amount to the company. Co-operative shearing gives the sheep-owner more control over his shearers than does contract shearing; it puts speed in the shed in a different perspective, and better shearing is frequently the result.

Contract shearing, however, is still a big factor and recently many small contractors, working in a limited area, have appeared in the industry.

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