People Australia

Wilmot, Ernest Ambrose (Ernie) (1897-1988) labourer and trade union official

Birth: 10 December 1897 at Waterloo, Sydney, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Ernest Ambrose Wilmot, labourer, and Mary, née Donohue (1869-1953). Marriage: 1924 at Redfern to native-born Grace Aileen Lupton (1897-1984). They had one daughter and one son. Death: 13 September 1988 in his usual residence at Fitzgerald Avenue, Maroubra, Sydney. Religion: Catholic. 

• Played as a hooker for South Sydney Rugby League first grade team in 1921-1924.
• Joined Transport Workers' Union (TWU) about 1929. Participated, with Barney Platt, J. T. Kane, J. Carroll, Jim Colbourne and others in Industrial Group within Transport Workers' Union, NSW branch, in 1945-1948. By 1948, with Colbourne and others, had begun to oppose Platt's leadership of NSW branch. Emerged as Platt's main opponent within union following disbandment of industrial groups and departure of Kane and others.
• Defeated Platt in 1956 election for secretaryship of NSW branch of federally-registered TWU, but was refused access by Platt (who remained secretary of NSW-registered branch) to union office and records and, receiving no salary, was forced to return to full-time employment at the Australian Glass Works where he had worked for the previous 30 years.
• Platt dominated the federal branch committee of management; also used majority to depose him as NSW delegate to federal council (1956, 1957 and 1958) and branch secretary (1958), although on each occasion was restored to position by court action.
• Replaced Platt as secretary-treasurer of NSW-registered union following victory of anti-Platt team at the 1959 elections for branch committee of management, retaining position until his retirement in 1968.
• Had joined the Australian Labor Party about 1940. Elected to NSW ALP State executive 1964. Made Life member of NSW branch of the ALP in 1980, nominated by Mascot branch.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarction (5 minutes) and ischaemic heart disease (years)
• His son Ernest Geoffrey (Reverend Brother Oliver) (d.1986) was a Marist brother.

Sources
Mark Bray and Andrew Rimmer, Delivering the Goods; the Transport Workers’ Union in New South Wales 1888-1986 (Sydney, 1987); Voice of Transport Worker, March 1969 pp 3, 7.