Norm Gallagher

Who was Norm Gallagher?

Norm Gallagher was a controversial Australian trade unionist, and Marxist-Leninist who led the militant Builders Labourers Federation as federal Secretary and as Victorian State Secretary.

Gallagher was raised in Melbourne and joined the Builders Labourers Federation in 1951. By 1970, he was elected as the BLF's Victorian State Secretary and radically improved pay and conditions on building sites. His militant leadership style initially united union factions but later alienated the union from employers as well as the Victorian Labor Government and other union leaders.

He was also a high-profile member of the Communist Party of Australia.

As Secretary of the union, Gallagher also acted to preserve the distinct Melbourne boulevards such as Royal Parade from development and many historic buildings from destruction including the Regent Theatre and the City Baths. A BLF black ban also protected the historic Bakery Hill site in Ballarat, where huge mass meetings were held in 1854 during the Eureka rebellion, from development.

Norm Gallager faced many protests when he directed the Federal union to intervene in the affairs of the New South Wales branch of the union in the mid-seventies. Many of the democratic measures installed by the NSW Branch leadership by Jack Mundey, Bob Pringle and Joe Owens and others were scrapped and many of the democratically imposed Green Bans were lifted. Officials of the NSW Branch eventually urged members to join the imposed branch, but were themselves blacklisted from the industry by Federal Union officials. The Federal takeover of the NSW Branch was instrumental in calling off many of the imposed Green Bans and the cancellation of the unions commitment to fighting for permanence in the building industry.