Labour Australia

James Condon, 1952

Argus (Melbourne), 20 August 1952, p 5

James Patrick (Jim) Condon (1901-1973) bootmaker and trade union leader 

Birth: 26 February 1901 at Uralla, New South Wales, third child and only son of James Condon (1865-1902), a gold miner who had been born in Victoria, and Maria, née Pickles (1878-1940), from Goulburn. Marriage: 2 March 1946 at Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Waterloo, Sydney, to Fanny ‘Dot’ Armitt of Goulburn. Death: 15 January 1973 at Footscray, Victoria. Religion: Catholic. 

• His father died in a fall of earth at Brown Paddock Gold Mine, Uralla, when Jimmy was aged one. His mother moved with her children to their relatives in Goulburn.
• In 1916 Condon joined NSW branch of the Australian Boot Trade Employees’ Federation (ABTEF) in his first year of apprenticeship with Baxter & Co, Goulburn.
• By 1925 he had moved to Waterloo, Sydney, where he continued in the boot trade and lived with a sister and with his mother until her death. He was president from 1931 and assistant secretary of the NSW branch of the union from 1933 to 1943. In January 1937 he was elected returning officer for the Trades and Labor Council during the contest for control of radio station 2KY.
• Succeeding Jim Maloney, he was State secretary of the ABTEF and editor of the union’s journal, Unity, from 1943 to 1947. In 1946 he fought off an attempt by Communists to gain control of the union.
• Moved to Melbourne where he became general secretary of the union from 1947 to 1967. Retired as representative of employees on the Central (Boot Trades) Committee in October 1971.
• He was buried in the Catholic portion of Northern Suburbs, Cemetery, Sydney.

Sources
Unity, 13 Feb 1947, 15 Aug 1968, ? March 1973.