This book is the first account of the New South Wales Transport Workers' Union to be published in Australia. It traces its history from its formation as a tiny Sussex Street union in Sydney in 1888 to its role in 1986 as one of the most powerful unions in the state and the nation.
The book principally focuses on the political inclinations of the union's leaders, the union's organisational capacities and its industrial experience. It highlights many of the major events and personalities that have shaped the Australian union movement, such as
devastation in the 1890 Maritime Strike;
reformation in 1901 by Billy Hughes;
deregistration from the NSW arbitration system for its role in the great strike of 1917;
decline in the 1930s as a result of the depression;
fierce internal conflict during the 1940s and 50s over the role of Communists and the ALP Industrial Groups;
federal-state conflicts culminating in the famous Moore v Doyle case of 1969;
leadership in the wage explosion in 1973–4;
35 years in struggle over the regulation of owner-drivers, a struggle which exploded in 1979 in the Razorback Blockades;
the role of the union in the end of the wage indexation system in 1981.