People Australia

Don Rountree, caricature by Dick Ovenden, 1936

Labor Call (Melbourne) 20 February 1936, p 3

Donald Charles (Don) Rountree (1886-1969) labourer, meatworker and trade union official 

Birth: 1886 at Gobur, Kanumbra, Victoria, son of Richard Rountree (1840-1893), a farmer, born in County Clare, Ireland and native-born Janet (Jessie), née Cumming (1853-1923). Unmarried. Death: 20 December 1969 at Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria; usual residence Addison street, Moonee Ponds, Melbourne. 

• Started as a labourer at Angliss & Co’s Imperial Freezing Works, Footscray, in 1913 and continued working until 1934 when he became full-time president of the Victorian Branch of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees’ Union (AMIEU).
• Began career in union as delegate of the AMIEU. He was a member of the Victorian branch committee of management of AMIEU from 1916 to 1963 (retired). President of Victorian branch AMIEU 1923-1924, 1927-1963 (with the exception of 1928 and 1932).
• Assisted with unionisation of the industry. Was Victorian delegate to federal council, 1925-1963; federal treasurer 1927-1932 (resigned); federal president 1941-1963.
• With Albert Edward Stahl, secretary of the Master Butchers’ Association, he was appointed assessor of the Victorian Meat Trade Tribunal in 1935. They prepared cases for improvement of wages, hours and conditions before Wages Boards and Rountree became the chief spokesperson and advocate for employees before these boards.
• AMIEU representative on Melbourne Trades Hall Council and the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
• Member of the Essendon branch of the Australian Labor Party. Was selected ALP candidate for Moonee Ponds ward of Essendon Council in August 1939. Was also an aspirant for the new seat of Doutta Galla province in the Legislative Council of Victoria.
• Treasurer of William Angliss Food Trades School from its inception in 1940 until 1963. AMIEU representative on William Angliss Food Trades School Council 1940-1963. Official dinner in celebration of his union activities at his retirement was held at the William Angliss Food Trades School in September 1963.
• Cause of death: subarachnoid haemorrhage (coroner’s report).

Sources
A. E. Davies, The Meat Workers Unite, The Australasian Meat Industry Employees’ Union (Victorian Branch), (Melbourne, 1974) pp 287-291; Meat Employees’ Journal, September-October 1962, pp 24-25, September-October 1963, p 7, November-December 1963, p 5, January-February, 1970 p 5.