Personality Profiles: Russ Collison

Russ Collison

Russ Collison is the Branch Secretary of The Australian Workers' Union (Greater NSW Branch).

Russ is also Vice President of the Labor Council of NSW. Before that, he was a member of the Executive.

Russ has been State Secretary of the AWU since 1996. Before that, he had held key senior positions with the Union. Russ has worked in the construction and brewing industries as a rigger/scaffolder for many years prior to becoming a union official. Russ is a member of the AWU National Executive and a delegate to the AWU National Conference. He is also a trustee of the First State Super Corporation.

Russ has been an active member of the ALP for many years and is a member of the NSW ALP Administrative Committee.

Russ began his working life on the railways, spent time in abattoirs, a stint on the Bass Strait oil rigs before returning to Sydney to find security and happiness at the Tooheys brewery. Along the way, Russ got himself qualified as a rigger and scaffolder and became a member of the Federated Ironworkers Association, which merged with the AWU in 1994.

It was at Tooheys that Russ took on his first leadership role, heading up the joint shop committee and winning the battle for a 35-hour week. After 13 years at the brewery Russ was seconded to the union office and decided to become a full-time union organiser.

Russ rose onto the FIA executive and oversaw the difficult amalgamations through the 1990s that culminated in the merger with the AWU. It is only now, nearly a decade later, that Russ feels the merged union has forged a true identity. "We are united today in a way that gives me confidence of our capacity to grow and thrive," Russ says.

Russ sees the AWU's challenge as providing a bridge between rural workers and those in the city. "What defines us is our diversity," he says. "When you represent a worker keeping a Qantas plane in the air, at the same time as you are fighting for the rights of seasonal fruit-pickers, you have to be bigger than one industry. In fact, there are very few industries where we don't have some coverage."

Russ can be contacted through the Greater NSW Branch.