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Brief History of the Union

The Union that we now know as HACSU was first registered nationally on 12 April 1911. (Federation occurred in 1901). The Conciliation and Arbitration Act was made in 1904 arising out of a desire to bring Federal control on industrial disputes which occurred across State boundaries. The desire stemmed from the Shearers'& Seamen's strike prior to 1900, which were key factors in bringing about Federation.

The first nationally registered name of the union was The Hospital and Asylum Attendants Employees Union of Australia. The current national name of our union is the Health Services Union of Australia (HSUA), and in Tasmania we are known as the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU). There have been many name changes (mainly due to amalgamations) over the years since 1911 but is has always been the same union, covering all hospital employees including registered, psychiatric and enrolled nurses.

In Tasmania, until 1961, there existed numerous small union groups attached to each hospital in the state. So initially they were strictly grass roots, work-site organisations with officials from the worksite working in a voluntary capacity or in a part-time paid capacity. During those years, because there were many more regional hospitals in the state than there are today, there were dozens of small branches, some with small memberships.

In 1961, all these small groups in Tasmania amalgamated into one Hospital Employees Federation of Australia, except for the Launceston Branch, and there became two Tasmanian Branches belonging to the Federal organisation in this State. This reflected the different political views prevailing at the time between Catholic Labour (DLP) and ALP.

In the late 1970's the membership of the Tasmanian branches totalled approximately 4000, and nationally 31,300 (including Tasmania).

In 1989, the two Tasmanian Branches amalgamated into one, known officially as Health Services Union of Australia Tasmania No 1 Branch, creating a total membership of just over 7000. (There remains another very small branch known as No 2 Branch which covers only a handful of research members employed at the university). At the same time another health union in NSW called Health and Research Employees Association (HREA), amalgamated with the national HSUA.

Today the national union has over 65,000 members in branches in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, ACT, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.

HACSU in Tasmania today has almost 8,000 members employed in all areas of Health and Community Service industries.