Association of Draughting Supervisory & Technical Employees
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| Full name | Association of Draughting, Technical and Supervisory Employees |
|---|---|
| Founded | August 1915 |
| Date dissolved | 1991 |
| merged into | Metals and Engineering Workers' Union |
| Members | 21,800 (1987) |
| Journal | Blueprint |
| Affiliation | ACTU, Metal Trades Federation, CAGEO, ACSPA |
| Country | Australia |
The Association of Draughting Supervisory and Technical Employees (ADSTE), originally known as the Association of Architects, Engineers, Surveyors and Draughtsmen of Australia (AAESDA), was an Australian trade union which existed between 1915 and 1991. It represented white collar and technical-grade employees in both the private sector and the public service. In private industry its members were concentrated primarily in the vehicle, metal and aircraft industries.
The union was founded in Brisbane in August 1915 with a membership of 108. The union initially represented white collar employees in the Queensland Railways workshops, but soon expanded to cover engineers employed in the Queensland Public Service and local government engineering offices, as well as architects in the Public Works Department and Department of Public Lands. After unsuccessfully seeking federal registration, the union was registered with the Industrial Court of Queensland on 11 April 1917 as the Australian Union of Architects, Engineers and Surveyors, Union of Employees, Queensland. During this period the union's membership was concentrated mainly in Brisbane and Ipswich. The union grew slowly over the following decades, reaching 243 members by 1933 and 528 by 1939.
The union grew rapidly during WWII, due to the increased demand for employees with technical expertise, many of them promoted from trades positions, and by 1941 the union's membership had reached 1,793. In 1943 the union extended its industrial remit to provide for coverage of draughtsmen. In 1944, with branches in Victoria and New South Wales, the union achieved federal registration as the Association of Architects, Engineers, Surveyors and Draughtsmen of Australia (AAESDA). The first annual meeting of the new Federal Council of the AAESDA was held in December 1945 and it was decided to move the union's head office from Queensland to Melbourne, where it would remain for the rest of the union's history - mainly due to the fact that the Victorian state branch had the largest membership in the union. In the same year the AAESDA merged with the Commonwealth Temporary Technical Officers' Association, formed two years earlier by government technicians in war-time service, based in Sydney.
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