Jack Mundey was born into an Irish Catholic family of five at Malanda in 1932. Malanda is situated on the Johnstone River in the Atherton Tablelands. Jack liked the country life and enjoyed horse riding, swimming in the rivers and exploring the rainforest. Although Malanda was an idyllic setting for a young boy, life was pretty tough in the depression years and it influenced Jack’s later life.

Jack’s father was a tolerant man and voted Labor all his life. He believed that society should be more egalitarian. He was critical about the Depression and its causes. Jack’s mother was a kind and talented woman who unfortunately died when Jack was six.

The family ran a dairy farm and then moved into share farming. The industry was established by clearing and burning the forest of Red Cedar, Silky Oaks and Queensland Maple. Mundey later recognised that at that altitude the soils were fragile and the forest should have been retained. Soil erosion was rampant.

Deep-seated racism was a feature of the local community. The local Aboriginal population mainly lived in shanty towns on the outskirts of the white settlement. Many worked on farms for virtually no pay and were often treated little better than slaves. They were often locked up by the local police and then released to farmers as farm labourers. The few who attended school often left at an early age. Jack’s neighbours, the Chinese market gardeners were also subjected to racial abuse.

Jack attended a number of state schools in the area and usually rode a horse to get there.

With the onset of World War 2 the local economy was transformed. Over 1 million Australian and U.S. servicemen lived on the Atherton Tableland during the war. Mareeba aerodrome was only 30 kilometres from Malanda and was used by planes in the battle of the Coral Sea.

Jack was eventually despatched to Cairns’ St Augustine’s Marist Brothers school. He was a keen sportsman and loved cricket, Rugby League and boxing. He didn’t see eye to eye with the head brother and returned home to work in various jobs including lantana clearing, firewood cutting and as a telephone exchange operator. He finally took up a plumber’s apprenticeship.

Playing representative Rugby League opened the doors to contacts in Sydney and Jack, with stars in his eyes, decided to take up an offer to play with Parramatta Rugby League Club in 1951.

Lodging with friends from the club Jack started his first job as a foundry worker in Rydalmere. This was his first experience of industry with large numbers of workers. He joined the Federated Ironworkers Association and developed a liking for the left.

A new job as a water tank fabricator saw Jack join the Sheetmetal Workers Union. The leadership was dominated by Labor and Communist members. Jack became a union delegate. He was becoming disillusioned with the Catholic Church, particularly Archbishop Mannix’ role in supporting B.A Santamaria, the man behind the Industrial Groups with their financial support from big business. It was the height of the Cold War.

Jack’s first political issue was when he became involved in the "ban the bomb" movement. He attended peace meetings and the main topic was how to bring about disarmament. At the same time Jack started attending local Communist Party meetings. He joined the Party in 1955. He then joined the FEDFA (engine drivers and firemen) when he took a job in St Marys as a greaser on earthmoving equipment. Jack joined the Builders Labourers Federation when he took a job on the site of the new Shell refinery at Granville. This union was poorly managed. There were bashings of militant workers and collusion with employers was rampant. But a union election saw some more progressive officials elected including Mick McNamara. They began the job of cleaning up the union and improving conditions and wages for the workers. The union then fell back into the same old hands after a bogus ballot. (This was common at the time.) Jack spent the next few years taking jobs at small sites where he was less visible to the union organisers when they visited a site. Once spotted the organiser would convince the boss to sack him. There was a concerted blacklisting effort to get the militants out of the industry. In 1959 Jack married Stephanie Lennon. Their first child, Michael was born in 1960.

The 50s had been a turbulent decade with the Korean War, the Soviet invasion of Hungary, the detonation of the first hydrogen bomb, the ALP / DLP split and Menzies’ stifling conservatism.

The sixties didn’t start well for Mundey. His wife Stephanie died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage. By 1961 the militant progressives had taken back control of the Builders Labourers after a heated battle. The new executive set about tackling some of the industries major problems.

Decent working conditions were virtually non existent. "Body Hire" was the practise whereby the contractor hired out workers to sub contractors. These workers were not covered by awards, workers comp, holiday pay or sick pay. Often the sub contractor would nick off before the job was completed and the workers lost all their entitlements. The union managed to get the main contractor to guarantee entitlements. Safety issues became even more important because of the Sydney high rise boom and the increase in demolition work. The union forced employers to have at least one worker with a St John’s Ambulance certificate on site. Before this, injured workers had to wait until an ambulance arrived before they received any medical attention. "Pacing" was a practise where the employer used a foreman who would set a work speed which created extra danger, especially on concrete pours. The Builders Labourers were also building a rapport with the Building Workers Industrial Union (BWIU), as members of both unions worked closely on building projects. The Builders Labourers Union wanted to get legal representation which was not identified as left wing affiliated and which would inspire more confidence in difficult negotiations with employers. They engaged J R McClelland and Co. It turned out to be a good choice. Jim McClelland had a fine legal mind and later became a minister in the Whitlam Government. Some legal firms were only interested in the lucrative workers compensation business and were known as "blood and bone" men.

After 1961 the union started supporting the ALP, despite the Party’s slow response to some of the country’s important social issues. The union itself became politically more engaged. Aboriginal land rights and the Vietnam War issue were top of the agenda. Mundey was arrested 6 times in anti Vietnam demonstrations. The union was an early supporter of the Gurindji peoples struggle and helped organise demonstrations and talk-ins.

In1965 Mundey married Judy Willcocks and with Michael moved to inner west Croydon Park in the inner west. Power struggles at a federal level saw the election of Victorian Norm Gallagher as secretary of the Federal Builders Labourers. A Maoist, Gallagher was respected for his physical qualities. Unknowingly, the seeds were sown for major problems for the NSW Builders further down the track.

In 1966 Mundey was elected President of the Sydney Committee of the Communist Party and in 1968 was elected BLF secretary. Over the next 2 years BLF membership rose from 4000 to 10000. With Mundey, the union proceeded on a reform agenda which culminated in the BLF’s Green Ban campaign which not only changed the face of the industrial landscape but the whole of society.

Part 2 next issue
-Simon