The history of the Australian Council
of Trade Unions (ACTU)

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The working-class history in general of Australia

Back-stage exit for a union diva

By Debra Jopson, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 1999. Jennie George announces she was quitting early as president of the ACTU. She seeks to evade her biographer, Brad Norington and hugs women supporters.

Hard labour for a trailblazer

By Brad Norington, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 January 2000. She was the ambitious young woman who rose because of the luck of good timing, but she became the ACTU president at the wrong time, with a union movement in decline. She announced her resignation last month in a low-key setting and left by a back door, which is a metaphor for her four years in the ACTU presidency, which began with promise but petered out.

A 17-year reign ends, but not without a fight

By Brad Norington, The Age, 15 February 2000. Bill Kelty today officially ends his 17-year reign as ACTU secretary - but not without falling out with his anointed successor, Greg Combet. Mr Kelty wanted to maintain a role in the ACTU.

Union leaders unveil new agenda

By Stephen Long and Chelsey Martin, Australian Financial Review, 27 June 2000. The ACTU's new leadership yesterday unveiled a radical policy agenda that shifts the union movement sharply to the Left through hard-line opposition to free trade, demands for new collective bargaining rights and support for industry-level caps on working hours.

Union war hits ACTU revival

By Brad Norington, Industrial Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 October 2000. Attempts by the ACTU's new leadership to unite union ranks and rebuild dwindling memberships are being jeopardised by a poaching battle between the right-wing Australian Workers Union, and the left-wing Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.