1. Ray Gietzelt AO was a major figure in the Australian union movement in the latter part of the 20th century.
20 Facts About Ray Gietzelt
1. 2.
Ray Gietzelt led the Federated Miscellaneous Workers' Union of Australia from 1955 to 1984.
3.
Ray Gietzelt exerted major influence in the careers of Bob Hawke, Neville Wran and Lionel Murphy, and he was made a Life Member of the Australian Labor Party.
4.
Ray Gietzelt's father owned a tyre business in Newtown that collapsed during the Great Depression as his clients found themselves unable to pay their bills.
5.
Ray Gietzelt studied chemistry at Ultimo Technical College at nights.
6.
Ray Gietzelt then joined a small chemical company, Getz Products, run by his father.
7.
Ray Gietzelt resumed his membership of the FMWU despite working in a junior management position.
8.
Ray Gietzelt became active in the campaign by a left-wing group known as the Protest Committee to wrest control of the FMWU from an entrenched right-wing faction that was seen as not accountable to the members.
9.
Ray Gietzelt became General Secretary of the Union in 1955, at the time being Australia's youngest federal secretary of a union.
10.
Ray Gietzelt remained in that post until his retirement in 1984.
11.
Ray Gietzelt oversaw a change in the union's strategy to include more direct bargaining between the union and employers rather than relying on arbitration courts.
12.
Ray Gietzelt was a member of the Australian Labor Party and journalists named him "kingmaker" because of his influence in the careers of senior Labor figures such as his close friends Bob Hawke, Neville Wran and Lionel Murphy.
13.
Ray Gietzelt was elected to an executive position on the Australian Council of Trade Unions in 1967.
14.
Brian Harradine, a Tasmanian delegate from the Right, opposed Hawke's candidature, and Ray Gietzelt was instrumental in having Harradine censured and later expelled from the Labor Party.
15.
Ray Gietzelt helped Neville Wran secure caucus support for him to become party leader, and organised numbers for Lionel Murphy to become a Senator.
16.
Together with Wran and Whitlam, in 1986 Ray Gietzelt helped establish the Lionel Murphy Foundation which awards scholarships to postgraduate students of science or law with a commitment to social justice.
17.
Ray Gietzelt was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1985.
18.
Ray Gietzelt served on the board of Qantas and as a Member of the Automotive Industry Authority.
19.
Ray Gietzelt was awarded life membership of the Australian Labor Party in 2003.
20.
Ray Gietzelt published his memoirs, Worth Fighting For in 2004.