"Formation to arbitration" - the early years of the Queensland branch of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union 1889-1918

The formation of a union and its early years of activity can inform and explain present union strategy. In the case of the AMIEU (Qld), the union moves from its craft origins to become an industry union that is flourishing when other unions in Queensland are only just recovering from the 1890s. It also changes from a union that prefers to bargain directly with employers to one that is detrimentally drawn into a centralised award system. This paper explores the first three decades of the AMIEU (Qld): from formation to arbitration.