Press release regarding the appointment of Bernard O'Connor to Director of ASIA
Date1970
Object numberANMS1369[006]
NamePress release
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsHeight: 330 mm, width: 203 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Carol O'Connor
DescriptionNews release from the Australian Stevedoring Industry Authority (ASIA) regarding the Melbourne Waterside Worker's quota increase. The release outlines an increase in the work quota for the port of Melbourne by 450 to 3500 with the extra men to be recruited immediately. The decision was made by the Director of the ASIA, Bernard O'Connor.HistoryThe Australian Stevedoring Industry Authority was set up in 1956 as a body corporate to regulate the performance of stevedoring operations. It comprised a chairman, an employer representative and a trade union representative. In 1970 the Authority was reconstituted with the addition of a Director. In 1978, after considerable reform of waterfront organisation, the Authority was terminated. Most of its functions went to the Association of Employers of Waterside Labour. Its assets and liabilities went to the Stevedoring Industry Finance Committee.
Bernard James O'Connor had been Chief Legal Officer and Industrial Officer with the Stevedoring Industry Board, forerunner of the Authority, since 1954. He then became Solicitor to the Authority, and was appointed Director in 1970 when that position was established. He remained Director until the Authority was wound up in 1978.
During this period the Australian waterfront industry underwent vast changes. In the 1950s and 1960s the Waterside Workers' Federation won many victories through industrial action, including control of hiring labour, while wharf labourers' awards and conditions were greatly increased and improved. In the 1970s with changing trade and the introduction of containerisation, the industry and its operations were reformed under the powers of the Australian Industry Authority.SignificanceThe Bernard O'Connor archival collection is an excellent research source for cargo management and labour relations in Australia. Bernard O'Connor had an integral role in the administration and regulation of the stevedoring industry in Australia through its period of greatest change and reform in the 1970s. The collection provides an account of the industry from the point of view of employers and governments, to compliment other historical accounts from the Unions' viewpoints.