With the economy faltering into depression, the Brisbane Butchers Employees' Union was formed in 1889. Branches in South Brisbane and Fortitude Valley quickly followed.

The South Brisbane Branch was formed at a meeting at Browns' Plough Inn, Stanley Street, South Brisbane. The daily press reported that the meeting "was one of the largest and most successful labour meetings ever held in South Brisbane."

The meeting strongly opposed the actions of some South Brisbane butchers to lower wages and lengthen hours. One speaker reported that some men were working 94 hours a week for 15 shillings. This was equal to 2 cents an hour.

Cheers greeted another speaker's statement: "Without the slightest degree of exaggeration the conditions are as bad as or even worse than the slaves in the Southern States of America before their emancipation".

The three branches soon united into one Brisbane branch, with founding secretary Herbert Hardacre retaining that position.

The new union acted quickly to improve conditions for shop butchers. In November 1889, a committee was set up "to take in charge the working in connection with and generally prepare for obtaining a weekly half holiday."

This was strongly opposed by the large butchers, led by the Graziers' Butchering Company. But the fledgling union, united by the fight, won out and more than 100 people met on April 22, 1890, to discuss preparations for its introduction.

To celebrate the victory, "a procession with brass bands and banners" was held on May 1, 1890.

The graziers still held out. A meeting of angry butchers "after a warm discussion" called on the support of other unions through the Australian Labour Federation.

They called on Graziers Butchering Company to grant the demand "if not in an amicable manner, then by compulsion if necessary". By May 13, the union had another victory under its belt. The company had capitulated.

THE Butchers' Union was launched on the eve of the torrid 1890s.

The dislike of trade unions by employees and especially graziers intensified over the "Jondaryn affair". They were defeated by the combined unions, which had black banned non-union handled wool from Jondaryn station.

To clear the wool from the wharves, they had to con cede the unions' demands. To them, it was a serious threat to their "rights" as employers.

The employers, with the graziers calling the tune launched an anti-union offensive. A repressive government dominated by squatters backed them. Savage laws-with armed forces to enforce them-were use~ to arrest and imprison workers.

By 1894, the unions had been routed. Many smaller unions, like the Butchers' Union disappeared. Worker who maintained strong union ideas were blacklisted and victimised. Many joined the growing army of "swaggies' -nomads, wandering the country seeking work.

These workers supplied some of the labor for the ex port works built in many centres in the 1890s. At the AMIEU conference in January 1914, State Secretary, Jack Crampton spoke with feeling of the "wanderers nomads and wayfarers" of the nineties. "Even today(1914)" he said, "we find the nomad assisting to carve out the destiny of the more militant of our industrial associations".

AFTER the demise of the Butchers' Union in 1893, Hardacre turned his attention to winning a parliamentary seat. He succeeded in 1893 and held a cabinet post under T. J. Ryan until 1919, when he accepted a well-paid position on the Land Court.

The union had faced major problems. The narrow craft outlook of the shop butchers-who saw themselves as a cut above other workers in the industry-meant no attempt was made to build an all-embracing union. Hardacre was happy to leave the butchering trade, regarding those who remained in the industry as "degraded" people.