People Australia

John Maynes, 1976

Tribune (Sydney), 26 May 1976, p 4

John Peter Maynes (1923-2009) accountant and trade union official

Birth: 15 March 1923 at Clifton Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, son of Peter Gerald Maynes (1890-1942), bootmaker, and Lily May, née Wallworth (1894-1948), boot machinist. Both parents were born at Fitzroy, Melbourne. Marriage: 7 October 1944 at Fitzroy North, to Melbourne-born Theresa Jane Dynes (1924-2004). They had eight children. Death: 15 April 2009 at Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Melbourne, late of Templestowe. Religion: Catholic. 

• He and his siblings were raised mostly by his mother, as his father was gaoled for family violence. His parents separated and later divorced. John was educated at the Christian Brothers College in Victoria Parade, Melbourne.
• Put up his age by one year and enlisted in the Australian Military Forces on 21 July 1941. Posted to the Pay Corps, he was promoted to lance sergeant and worked with the 14th Garrison Battalion in prisoner of war camps, was injured on duty and discharged medically unfit on 17 January 1942.
• Worked as an accountant for the Macquarie Broadcasting Network in Melbourne. Joined the Victorian branch of the Federated Clerks’ Union (FCU) in 1948. Played a leading role in the Australian Labor Party's industrial group — the Groupers.
• Became deputy president of the Victorian branch of the FCU in 1950 and was president from 1965. Was also a State councillor.
• Federal president of the FCU from 1954 until he retired in 1992.
• FCU representative on the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and Melbourne Trades Hall Council from 1950. Executive member of the ACTU from about 1981 to 1991. After the ALP split in 1955 he joined the Democratic Labor Party for several years. Supporter of Bob Santamaria until the 1970s. Was a key figure in forming a new organisation, known as Social Action.
• Member of three ACTU sub-committees of Automation, the Arbitration Act and Basic Wage. Influential in designing ACTU policy on new technology and in 1991 contributing to the restructure of the ACTU.
• Official of FIET (International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees), the worldwide white-collar union, as member of its world executive and president of APRO-FIET (the Asia and Pacific Regional Office of FIET).
• Participated in study tour of the United States of America, England and continental Europe on issue of automation as it affects white-collar workers.
• Prominent in the growth of white-collar unions as it is argued that the growth of FCU in auto and oil industries in 1960s paved the way for major unionisation in banking, insurance and commerce.
• Appointed Member of the Order of Australia, for services to the trade union movement, in January 1985.

Sources
Clerk, April 1965, November-December 1991; obituary by Keith Harvey and photo in Labour History, No. 97, November 2009, pp 199-201: https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.310376070051992.