Labour Australia

Charles Mundy, caricature by Dick Ovenden, 1923

Labor Call (Melbourne), 8 November 1923, p 11

Charles Ebenezer (Charlie) Mundy (1883-1966) engineer and trade union official 

Birth: 1883 at Aldershot, Hampshire, England, thirteenth of fourteen children of Ernest Mundy, (1838-1911), currier and boot maker, and Emma, née Stephens (1837-1910). Marriage: 11 August 1903 at Adelaide, South Australia, to native-born Anne Mary (Annie) McDermott (1885-1968). They had three daughters and one son. Death: 3 July 1966 at Heidelberg, Melbourne, Victoria; usual residence Fraser Street, Middle Park. 

• In about 1884 arrived with his parents and siblings in South Australia, where he served his apprenticeship as an engineer. Joined the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) in 1903.
• Moved to Broken Hill, New South Wales, where he worked along the line of lode, and in 1911 to Melbourne, and for many years worked at various engineering shops in Victoria.
• Was a member of the Melbourne district committee of the AEU from 1914 until he was appointed district secretary in 1917. The following year he was appointed organiser for Victoria and Tasmania.
• Elected as one of the first committee members of the Commonwealth Council of Federated Unions in 1923, president 1927. The organisation functioned prior to the formation of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and coordinated union policy and activity on industrial arbitration issues which helped to unify a trade union approach to industrial claims, in particular on wages and conditions of employment.
• Arbitration agent for Amalgamated Engineering Union and industrial advocate for unions generally on national matters in the Commonwealth Industrial Tribunals in coordinating many National Arbitration cases. Resigned in 1947 and became an advocate and industrial adviser.
• Cause of death: bronchopneumonia, chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Sources
AEU Monthly Journal, December 1966.