People Australia

Betty Monica Spears (1926-2012) stenographer, clerk, trade union official and political activist

Birth: 14 March 1926 at St Margaret’s Hospital, Sydney, daughter of native-born parents John (Jack) Spears (1890-1960), railway guard, and Mary, née White (1891-1976). Unmarried: Death: January 2012. Religion: Catholic. 

• Educated at St Brigid’s school, Marrickville.
• Worked for Department of Labour and Industry 1942-47. She was attracted to unionism saying that: "My father was a railwayman who believed everyone had to join a union, and we always talked unionism at home."
• Clerical worker for Bread Carters’ Union in 1947-1952. Joined Federated Clerks’ Union (FCU) in 1947. Clerical worker for Vehicle Builders’ Union 1954-1988, office manager from 1967.
• Joined the Australian Labor Party’s Dulwich Hill Branch in 1954. From 1956 represented FCU on Equal Pay Committee established by NSW Labor Council, working with Doris Osborne, Elizabeth Mattick, Mavis Woodford, Eileen Powell, Dot Chalker, Pat Thompson, Carmal Nyham, Flo Davis and other women representatives.
• Expelled from ALP early 1958 for standing on a Unity Ticket in FCU elections.
• Member of FCU executive from 1959, vice president 1959-1971 and deputy president 1971-1988. Delegate to FCU State Council 1956-1988; delegate to Federal Council 1968-88. Life Member of FCU 1986.
• Delegate to Australian Council of Trade Union congresses 1968-1988. Delegate to NSW Labor Council 1959-86. Secretary to Equal Pay Committee from about 1967 to 1975. NSWLC Scroll of Honour, 1988.
• Addressed public meetings during National Equal Pay Week November 1968. Was instrumental in organising Committee’s successful joint political and legal campaign following the 1972 Federal equal pay case.
• Rejoined ALP 1974 (Clovelly Branch). FCU delegate to NSW ALP Annual Conference and Labor Women’s Committee for some 5 years.
• Foundation member of the Women’s Trade Union Commission in 1974 and secretary from 1975 to 1979. Represented the FCU at Conference of Asia FIAT (International Federation of Commercial, Clerical and Technical Employees), Tokyo, 1977.
• Member Women’s Advisory Council 1976-1978. In 1978 was active in formation of Working Women’s Charter Committee (WWCC), established at request of 1977 ACTU Congress to help eliminate anomalies relating to equal pay and promote equal opportunity. NSWLC representative on ACTU Women's Committee 1978-85. WWCC convener, 1978-84.
• President, Business and Professional Women Sydney Club, 1979. In 1984, with June de Lorenzo, she was instrumental in WWCC securing a grant from the Federal and State governments to establish a long day child care centre for bus employees, leading to the establishment of the Betty Spears Child Care Centre at Tempe.
• Commissioned justice of the peace in 1972. Awarded medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 1980.

Sources
Who’s Who of Australian Women, 1995; Interviews with B. Spears 1979 & 1997, LCNSW Equal Pay Records, State Library of NSW. Malcolm Brown, Sydney Morning Herald, 'Timelines', 20 February 2012 p.16.