Who Can Join the AWU

Who can join the AWU?

 

The Australian Workers’ Union  represents workers in a large variety of industries. The AWU covers workers in every state and territory. The following list is a guide to the industries our union can represent and includes people employed in connection with these industries. If you’re unsure about which union is the right union for you, contact us and we’ll help you:

The AWU’s coverage is split into ‘Industry Coverage’ and ‘Occupational Coverage’

Industry Coverage

Industry coverage allows us to cover all employees working in a particular industry regardless of the job they perform. Industry coverage is determined by the activities of the employer – the employer must operate substantially in or in connection with the industries listed below.

The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) cover the following industries:

  • Aluminium manufacturing
  • Ammunitions and explosives manufacturing
  • Amusement centres and arcades (karaoke, video game arcades, paintball, laser tag etc.)
  • Aquaculture (aquatic farming of fish and other marine animals and plants)
  • Asphalt and bitumen (manufacture and laying)
  • Aviation (aircraft engineers and maintenance/cleaning of aircraft)
  • Basketballers (professional women’s basketballers)
  • Bowling greens (maintenance of lawn bowling greens)
  • Brass manufacturing
  • Broadacre field crops (eg. farming of hay, wheat, grain, rice, pulses, maize, oats etc.)
  • Brown coal mining
  • Candle manufacturing
  • Civil construction – this includes the construction and maintenance of:
      • Roads
      • Tunnels
      • Rail lines
      • Dams
      • Airports
      • Bridges
      • Power houses, chemical plants, oil and gas refineries
      • Power, radio, television and radar transmission lines
      • Silos
      • Sports and entertainment complexes
      • Traffic control
        (Except in Northern Territory)
  • Cleaning and catering work performed at premises where the following work is being performed:
      • Civil construction
      • Metalliferous mining
      • Hydrocarbons
      • Pastoral
      • and cleaning and catering work performed by Cleanevent or Event Services.
  • Cement and lime manufacturing
  • Cemeteries (making coffins, undertakers and general maintenance work)
  • Cereal manufacturing
  • Charcoal manufacturing
  • Chemicals (manufacturing of fertilisers, cleaning products etc.)
  • Concrete Products (concrete batching plants and the manufacture of concrete poles, bricks, railway sleepers etc.)
  • Copper manufacturing
  • Cotton (cotton growing, ginning and manufacturing)
  • Dairy farming
  • Dairy manufacturing including butter, margarine and milk
  • Dehydration of food and vegetables
  • Dredging or sluicing (artificial channel for conducting water)
  • Engineering (any work related to the engineering industry)
  • Exhibition industry (fabricating, installing, marking out stands etc.)
  • Fire brigades
  • Gardening workers
  • Gas (supply of gas, maintenance of gas lines etc.)
  • Glass manufacturing
  • Golf courses (greenkeepers and other maintenance work)
  • Iron manufacturing
  • Grain industry (growing, supply and manufacturing)
  • Hair and beauty industry (salons, beauty parlours and wig makers)
  • Horticulture (all fruit and vegetable growing)
  • Hydrocarbons (oil and gas mining, transport and refining)
  • Land management (e.g. National Parks workers)
  • Landscaping workers
  • Laundry workers
  • Meat industry (processing and preserving)
  • Metal industry (manufacture and supply of all metals)
  • Metalliferous mining (mining for gold, iron ore, minerals, gemstones, phosphates, uranium etc.)
  • Mushroom farms (and other edible fungi)
  • Netballers (professional netballers)
  • Nurseries
  • Nut food manufacturing
  • Oil refineries and distilleries
  • Ores (smelting, reducing and refining)
  • Paper manufacturing
  • Pastoral – this includes:
      • Shearers and crutchers
      • Shed hands
      • Pig breeding and raising
      • Woolclassers, woolsorters and woolscourers
  • Pest control
  • Pharmaceutical industry (manufacture of drugs)
  • Plastic moulding
  • Potato crisp manufacturing
  • Poultry farming
  • Power generation (e.g. solar, nuclear and wind)
  • Quarrying (all work at quarries)
  • Racing industry (all work in the horse and greyhound racing industry)
  • Recycling (recycling of all products)
  • Rope (manufacture of rope and related products)
  • Salt (mining and manufacturing)
  • Seafood processing
  • Ship building and repairing
  • Silviculture (growing of forests)
  • Ski instructors and assistants for T-bars etc.
  • Soap manufacturing
  • Squash centres
  • Steel manufacturing
  • Sugar (growing, refining and manufacturing)
  • Tea (growing and packing of tea)
  • Ten pin bowling centres
  • Tennis courts (maintenance of tennis courts and surrounding areas)
  • Textiles (jute, flax, rope, thread, cordage, twine, mats, bags or hessian)
  • Theme Parks
  • Timber and sawmilling
  • Tobacco (farming and manufacturing)
  • Toy manufacturing
  • Traffic controllers
  • Vegetable oils (farming and manufacturing)
  • Water and sewerage (maintenance, supply, irrigation etc.)
  • Wine industry (growing of grapes and manufacture of wine)
  • Wire manufacturing

The AWU has a number of industries that it covers in one state but not in others. These include:

Queensland
In Queensland the Australian Workers’ Union also covers the following industries:

  • Accommodation services
  • Aged care services
  • Animal welfare services (not vets)
  • Beverages (manufacturing and distribution – alcoholic and non-alcoholic)
  • Clay and bricks (mining and manufacture)
  • Cleaners
  • Clothing manufacturing
  • Coffee manufacturing
  • Cork board manufacture
  • Dredges, barges and tugboats (operating these vessels)
  • Elastic and rubber manufacturing
  • Entertainment (racecourses, theme parks, tourist parks, animal farms, marine parks, aquariums, safari tours, fishing tours, theatre halls)
  • Fabricated building unit manufacturing
  • Food manufacturing
  • Hardboard manufacturing
  • Hospitality (hotels, clubs, casinos, motels, cafes and restaurants)
  • Hospitals (but not private pathology)
  • Mail (sorting and processing)
  • Match and wooden skewer manufacturing
  • Motion picture production
  • Parking meters (all connected work)
  • Poultry processing
  • Prisons (particularly youth detention centres)
  • Rubber manufacturing
  • Security guards
  • Service station attendants
  • Textiles manufacturing
  • Tourist resorts
  • Traffic monitoring
  • Transport of goods and people

New South Wales
In New South Wales the Australian Workers’ Union also covers the following industries:

  • Casinos
  • Clubs and discos (stage crew, projectionists, audio and lighting technicians, props person, make-up artists, choreographers etc.)
  • Film and television production, processing and distribution
  • Fruit and vegetable markets
  • Hydrocarbons – extraction from plants
  • Insulation materials manufacturing
  • Matches manufacturing
  • Music manufacturing (records, CDs etc.)
  • Parachute manufacturing
  • Pen and pencil manufacturing
  • Solar energy
  • Zoos

Western Australia
In Western Australia the Australian Workers’ Union also covers the following industries:

  • Carpet and upholstery manufacturing
  • Furniture manufacturing
  • Narrogin brickworks
  • Rubber manufacturing
  • Stevedoring

South Australia
In South Australia the Australian Workers’ Union also covers the following industries:

  • Brick making, tile making and pottery
  • Excavation work
  • Local council workers
  • Ship yards at Whyalla 
  • Tube manufacturing

Occupational Coverage

Occupational coverage allows us to cover employees performing that occupation regardless of the industry in which they work. The primary purpose of the relevant employee’s employment must fall within the occupations listed below.

The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) cover the following occupations:

  • Assembling of machine parts or metallic articles
  • Blacksmiths
  • Bolt and nut machinists
  • Borers
  • Brassfinishers
  • Carpenters
  • Coppersmiths
  • Cycle and motor cycle mechanics
  • Die sinkers
  • Dressers
  • Drillers
  • Electrical fitters
  • Electrical mechanics
  • Engineers
  • Fitters
  • Forgers (engineers, general and furnacemen)
  • Grinders and lappers
  • Gunsmiths (manufacture and repair of guns)
  • Instrument makers
  • Iron and steel rollers
  • Joiners
  • Machine makers
  • Machine operators
  • Mechanics
  • Mechanics’ assistants
  • Mechanical draughtsmen
  • Meter readers and fitters (water, gas and electricity)
  • Milling Machinists
  • Millwright
  • Labourers
  • Locksmiths
  • Oxy-acetylene cutters
  • Patternmakers
  • Pipe fitters
  • Planers
  • Polishers
  • Riggers
  • Safe makers
  • Scaffolders
  • Scale makers and adjusters
  • Shapers
  • Shipsmiths
  • Slotters
  • Smiths’ strikers
  • Springsmiths and spring fitters
  • Surveyors and their assistants
  • Technicians
  • Television antennae installers
  • Tool and gauge makers
  • Tool storemen
  • Tuners and testers
  • Turners
  • Welders

Queensland
In Queensland the Australian Workers’ Union also covers the following occupations:

  • Motor vehicle salesmen
  • Shop assistants
  • Storemen and packers
  • Toll collectors
  • Underwater divers

New South Wales
In New South Wales the Australian Workers’ Union also covers the following occupations:

  • Fencers and clearers of land
  • Ticket sales in connection with the amusement industry
  • Toll collecting
  • Tour guides

Western Australia
In Western Australia the Australian Workers’ Union also covers the following occupations:

  • Installation of carpet, blinds, curtains etc.
  • Piano makers, repairers and tuners
  • Service station attendants
  • Wood workers (manufacturing clocks, billiard tables, cabinets etc.)

South Australia
In South Australia the Australian Workers’ Union also covers the following occupations:

  • Oliversmiths
  • Wiremen

 

Be a part of our community.

Join the AWU.

Stronger together.
 
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