Eliot V. Elliott

Who was Eliot V. Elliott?

Eliot Valens Elliott, also known as Vic Elliott, was a trade union leader of the Seamen's Union of Australia from 1941 to 1978.

Born in Huntly, New Zealand, Elliott left school at the age of 15, briefly worked on the New Zealand railways, before becoming a merchant seaman and travelling the world.

During the 1920s, Elliott moved to Australia to live and work as a seafarer. He was a shipboard delegate during the Seamen's Strike of 1925, which severely disrupted trade between Britain, South Africa and Australasia. By 1935 Elliott had become recognised as a leader of Australian seamen and was prominent in a bitter strike against an unsatisfactory Award and poor working conditions that lasted from December 1935 to February 1936. The strike failed with the union left divided and crippled. Recognised by his peers as a skilled and militant trade unionist, he was elected leader of the Queensland Branch of the Seamen's Union of Australia in 1936 and also joined the Communist Party of Australia that year. In 1941, he was elected Federal leader of the union, a position he was to hold continually until his retirement in 1978.