Postal
Vale Dianne Hamilton and Julie Milligan
It is with great sadness that the E-bulletin informs members of the death of two of its former officers, Dianne Hamilton and Julie Milligan.
Dianne Hamilton was the former National Assistant Secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), now the CEPU.
Di’s contribution to the union cannot be underestimated and is on par with that of Louisa Dunkley (Victorian Women’s Post and Telegraph Association) who was a pioneer in pursuing equal pay and status for women in the early 1900s.
Like her predecessor, Di championed equal opportunity and worked tirelessly in encouraging women to take an active role in the pursuit of these goals through the Australian trade union movement.
Di was first elected to the Union of Postal Clerks and Telegraphists (UPT) Victorian Branch in the early 1980s and shortly thereafter elected to the position of Branch Assistant Secretary. In addition to her day to day industrial activities, Di was part of the UPT’s team in negotiating the Postal Level Restructure (PLS) Agreement which saw up to that time the biggest change to the work place and Postal career structures.
In 1988 Di was elected to the top position as the UPT’s General Secretary and immediately she took on the lead role in the amalgamation of the APTU/UPT and ATEA/ATPOA to form the CWU. Her contribution to further amalgamations ultimately saw the formation of the now CEPU.
The late 1980s and early 1990s represented a time of major change in Australia Post’s operations. The first of these changes to Post Office counters and known as the Retail Post Agreement saw Di leading the negotiations in securing member jobs and conditions. The Retail Post Agreement ultimately set the scene for the roll out of changes into all the other aspects of Australia Post.
Inevitably Di’s CWU National Assistant Secretary’s position took her into the Asia Pacific and World arenas with the former Communications International (now Union Network International). One of her lasting international achievements before retiring from the CEPU in 1998 was her major contribution in the development of the then Communications International Women’s Policy.
Di was at the cutting edge of changes within both the Australian communications industry and communications unions and was one of the first women to gain this achievement and therefore set an example for others to aspire to.
Julie Milligan was an activist in the telecommunications industry and for many years and an industrial officer of this union.
Julie entered the industry as a telephonist in the late 1970s, not long after the creation of Telecom through the splitting up of the old PMG. At the age of 20, she was involved in the first major industrial action engaged in by telephonists in Telecom when 300 of them refused to work at the Pitt 10C exchange (Sydney) in unacceptable conditions at the time of the 1978 telecommunications technology dispute.
This marked the beginning of one of the most active periods of the then telephonist union, the ATPOA. From a body which had been viewed by many as largely a supervisors’ union, the ATPOA began to be transformed into a campaigning organisation, attracting a broad and active membership.
Julie played a major role in this change, helping to lead campaigns around major issues affecting operators at the time, particularly those involving health and safety (shrieks) and the impacts of automation on job security (the MAC plans). In 1980 she became Vice-President of the union’s NSW branch.
Julie moved to Melbourne in the mid 1980s and was subsequently employed at the Telecom workshops where her activities as a shop floor activist attracted disciplinary charges from Telstra management. She became a full-time industrial officer with the Victorian branch of the union (then the ATEA) in 1987.
In 1991, Julie moved from the Victorian branch of the then ATEA/ATPOA to the National Office where, as a Senior National Industrial Officer, she played a major role in the union’s industrial and political life until 2005. She was a key negotiator in all Telstra Enterprise Agreements made during that time and was central to the union’s successful fight to protect the Telstra Redundancy Agreement. Julie also played a major role in defending the union and its members against the attacks on employment conditions during the 1998 Telstra industrial dispute in the early years of the Howard Government.
During her time with the union Julie remained active in promoting the engagement of women in the union’s activities and ensuring their proper representation in the union’s structures. She was instrumental in ensuring that ATPOA officials retained an effective voice in the union’s decision-making bodies in the course of many amalgamations and strongly promoted the creation of an affirmative action position on the union’s Divisional Executive.
Whether dealing with the immediate difficulties of individual employees or with the cut-and-thrust of high level negotiations, Julie brought to her chosen work the same thoroughness, tough-mindedness and genuine desire to get the best possible outcome for the union’s members.
Julie died after a brave battle with cancer at age 51.