People Australia

Oscar Ferdinand Gordon Schreiber (1887-1963) cabinet-maker, trade union official and political activist

Birth: 7 October 1887 at Forbes, New South Wales, son of John Schreiber (1851-?), cabinet-maker later grocer, born in Jiedlitz, Saxony, Germany, and Annie, née Fraser (1852-1915), born in Scotland. Marriage: 7 March 1916 in a civil ceremony at North Sydney to Lilian Goodere (1876-1966), a teacher of dressmaking, born at Aston, Warwickshire, England. Death: 2 July 1963 in his home at Wandella Avenue, Roseville, Sydney. 

• Apprenticed cabinetmaker, Beard Watson Pty Ltd. Joined Furnishing Trades Society of NSW.
• First editor of quarterly journal, The Furnishing Worker, from 1913 until 1963. General secretary-treasurer of the Furnishing Trades Society of NSW from 1913 to 1948.
• Assisted in improving wages and conditions in industry through the Arbitration system and through lobbying for changes to legislation through the introduction of the False Advertising Act and amendments to the Health Act, Timber Marketing Act, Hire Purchase Act and the Lay By Act.
• President of the Trade Union Secretaries’ Association and prominent in organising union opposition to J. T. Lang and in promoting Keynesian ideas in labour movement in late 1930s. President of the Furnishing Trades Advisory panel when the Furniture Trades Convention was formed, which produced a minimum standard code for the manufacture of furniture.
• Successfully advocated for the manufacture of timber aircraft in Australia during World War I which resulted in the Mosquito Bomber. Given 12-months leave from general secretary duties in 1947 following a heart attack, and resigned in 1948.
• Worked in a limited capacity of country organiser for his union while on leave, which he continued on a part-time basis after relinquishing his position of general secretary.
• Executive member of Trades and Labor Council; member of Willoughby branch of Australian Labor Party and later member of ALP branch in Roseville where he lived. Wrote items published in the Sydney daily press.
• Cause of death: coronary occlusion (instant) and coronary ischaemia (eight years). 

Sources
Furnishing Worker, 7 August 1963 pp 1-2; Labor Daily, 13 January 1927; Labor Year Book 1933, p 174, 1934/5 p 235; G. Robinson, How Labor Governed: Social Structures and the Formation of Public Policy During the NSW Lang Government of November 1930 to May 1932, Ph D thesis, School of Historical Studies, Monash University, 2001.