Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union
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| Full name | Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union of Australia |
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| Founded | 1900 |
| Date dissolved | 1 December 1993 |
| Deregistered | Members joined MUA and AMWU |
| Office location | Balmain, New South Wales |
| Country | Australia |
The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union (FSPDU) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1900 and 1993. It represented labourers in the shipbuilding industry, covering "mostly work associated with chipping, painting, scrubbing [and] cleaning [ships], working in every size of tanks, cleaning boilers, docking and undocking vessels, and rigging work".
The Painters and Dockers' Union had its origins in the New South Wales Associated Laborers Union, also known as the Balmain Labourers Union, which was established in Balmain in May 1883. The new union was formed to represent all unskilled workers or labourers in the area, but was focussed mainly on shipbuilding and ship repair, the main industry in Balmain. The union gradually grew in stature over the next decade, affiliating with the Trades and Labor Council of Sydney in 1889 and establishing the Balmain Trades and Labor Hall in 1890. The union was involved in the unsuccessful 1890 Maritime Strike. The union was also heavily involved in the formation of the first branch of the Labor Electoral League of New South Wales, the forerunner to the Australian Labor Party, in Balmain in April 1891. The union's finances suffered during the depression of the 1890s and in January 1898 the union's members unanimously voted for its dissolution.
Following the dissolution of the Balmain Labourers' Union its members were reorganised along industrial lines, with the broad coverage of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the shipbuilding industry split mainly between the Federated Ironworkers' Association and the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers' Union of Port Jackson, the latter being formally established in 1900. The union conducted two successful strikes in the same year, establishing closed shop arrangements in the industry. The union soon expanded out of Balmain to represent painters and dockers working throughout Sydney Harbour, growing rapidly from 449 members in 1902 to 1,954 in 1907. The union achieved its first industrial award in 1903, a collective agreement with employers, registered by consent, before amalgamating with similar unions in other states to form the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union of Australia in 1909. The union achieved federal registration in 1916, giving it access to the federal system of arbitration and conciliation courts.
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