The Worker (Wagga)

The Australian Worker is a newspaper produced in Sydney, New South Wales for the Australian Workers' Union.

The paper had its origin in The Hummer, "Official organ of the Associated Riverina Workers", a newspaper produced in Wagga Wagga in the depths of the 1890s depression on 19 October 1891. The paper was jointly funded by the Wagga branches of the Amalgamated Shearers' Union and the General Workers' Union, founders in 1894 of the Australian Workers' Union. The Hummer was the first union-owned newspaper in New South Wales (there was a privately owned pro-labor paper called The Shearers' Record published by Andrews and Taylor), and was born out of the perception that many or most mainstream newspaper proprietors and editors were sufficiently hostile to Unionism to suppress or mutilate letters and news items sympathetic to workers' rights, and to come down heavily on the side of business owners in any dispute. The men behind this bold move, which may have contravened the constitutions of the unions involved, were Wagga Branch officials Walter Head, Arthur Rae and J. J. Mooney. Later a share was sold to the Labor Electoral League. and the last issue 3 September 1892.

An arrangement was arrived at with a similar institution, The Worker, founded by William Lane in Brisbane in 1890, to share resources, and the resulting paper The Worker, "with which is incorporated The Hummer" in Wagga, associated with The Worker in Brisbane, Queensland began in Sydney on 24 September 1892, with each company supplying half the content of each issue.

Wagga Branch continued the publication of The Worker until March, 1893, when six other N.S.W. Branches agreed to join in, and the plant was removed to either 1 Palmer Street Wooloomooloo or 217 Palmer Street, Sydney. J. A. Ross was Manager and W. Head and A. Rae performed most of the editorial work. From July 1893 the whole of the paper was printed in-house, the Queensland agreement having come to an end. J. Medway Day, of the South Australian Register and The Voice, was brought in as editor in 1894, and around this time Ross resigned as manager and Medway Day was obliged to take on that role as well. For the 1894 general election it was decided to issue The Worker daily during the campaign, so The Daily Worker was published for three weeks commencing 2 July 1894. This proved financially disastrous; a loss being incurred of almost ₤2,000, which the annual levy of 1s. per member was insufficient to meet.

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