People Australia

James William (Jim) Reid (1888-1969) bricklayer, trade union official and waterfront watchman 

Birth: 1888 at Blyth, Northumberland, England, son of James Reid (1862-1893), joiner, and Mary Susan, née Wilson, later Gair (1858-1937). Marriage: 1909 at Blyth, Northumberland, to Isabella Smith (1888-1960), born at Jarrow, Durham, England. They had three daughters and two sons. Death: 21 December 1969 at Eversleigh Home of Peace, Petersham, Sydney: usual residence Wellington Street, Waterloo. Religion: Anglican. 

• Started work when 13 years old in a coalmine in North of England. His father died in 1893 and his mother had remarried by 1901 when Jim was living with her, his stepfather and his siblings and working as a coal miner trapper at Cowpen Colliery, Blyth, Northumberland. He started as an apprenticed bricklayer about 1903.
• Arrived in Australia about 1912 to seek higher standard of living. Unemployment was high in Australia at the time and many local tradesmen were on the union’s book so the secretary of the Bricklayers’ Union treated him with disdain and suggested that he return to the UK.
• Eventually Jim was admitted as a member of the Bricklayers’ Union. Became minute secretary assisting the then Secretary, Jack Kilburn.
• Was victimised for union activities and found that no employer would hire him in the 1920s until he changed his name to Jim Brown.
• Moved to Wellington Street, Waterloo, Sydney, about 1921 and lived there for the rest of his life.
• Unemployed during Depression in 1930s and joined the Unemployed Workers’ Movement. Gained work again when the industry picked up in the late 1930s.
• Was active in organising building workers into the Building Workers’ Industrial Union of Australia (BWIU) and campaigned for the 44 hour-week and elimination of piecework on city building sites. Was vice-president of the Sydney branch of the BWIU until 1943.
• Casual waterfront watchman from 1943. Protested against the “bull system” of labour hire and for a rotary roster system. Contributed to the success of the 1952 meeting which initiated a change of leadership of the union.
• Supported the successful 3-week strike in 1956-1957 of waterfront watchmen for the establishment of the rotary roster system and improved wages and conditions.
• Member of the Miscellaneous Workers’ Union (MWU) about 1943. Member of branch executive of the MWU and its delegate to NSW Labor Council for ten years. Was made life member of the NSW branch of the MWU on his retirement in 1964.
• Continued union activity after retirement as MWU delegate to the NSW Labor Council.
• Cause of death: pneumonia (3 days), diabetes mellitus (10 years), and aortic aneurysm (years).

Sources
Federation News, March 1965 p 4, March 1970 p 5.