Originating in 1890 and covering slaughtermen, retail butchers and sausage casing workers, the Australasian Federated Butchers Employees' Union was one of the first unions to register with the newly conceived Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in 1906. In 1912 this name was changed to the Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union which has existed unchanged to this day. Women came to form a large part of the boning and packing sections of the industry, and, as a consequence, the Union became one of the spearheads of the equal pay campaign. |
