Ted Roach, 1909-1997
@box text intro = Ted Roach, secretary of the South Coast branch of the Waterside Workers Federation during the pig-iron dispute in 1938, passed away on February 25.
Born in Coledale, NSW, in 1909, Ted learned industrial militancy early in life from his militant coal-mining father. He left school at 13 and worked in many jobs in NSW and Queensland.
As the depression hit, Ted "carried his swag" through Queensland, ending up in the cane fields. In Mackay he joined the Communist Party and was involved with the unemployed, becoming secretary of the Shelter Shed Committee and the Unemployed Workers Movement.
Returning to Newcastle in 1931, Ted became district secretary of the Unemployed Workers Movement, secretary of the party organisation for trade union work and district secretary of the Militant Minority Movement. This activism led to a strike at Lysaght's Newcastle works in 1934, after Ted had started work as a wharfie.
At the end of 1936, Ted transferred to Port Kembla. Conditions for wharfies were harsh, and Ted and his fellow militants began organising, agitating for a union-controlled roster system to replace the "bull" system. Ted was elected secretary of the South Coast branch of the Waterside Workers Federation in March 1938 and immediately agitated for the implementation of a roster system. This was one of the first steps in getting rid of the "bull" system nationally.
In November 1938, the wharfies at Port Kembla refused to load pig iron on to the Dalfram, which was heading for Japan. This created an international incident, and the Menzies government was forced to stop this practice after a compromise was reached with the local branch.
In 1942, Ted was elected assistant secretary of the federal branch of the union; he was continually re-elected to this position until 1967. During this time, he was involved in the ban which tied up Dutch ships while the Indonesians were fighting for their independence. In 1946 he attended the inaugural Indonesian trade union conference.
He was jailed in 1949 for six weeks during the coal strike, and in 1951 for 38 weeks for publishing a cartoon in the Maritime Worker which was critical of a federal industrial court judge's ruling.
Ted was also responsible for organising the branches nationally and built up good relationships all around the country. He had particular affection for the Brisbane branch and of course the South Coast branch.
In Western Australia, he came into conflict with AWU officials over Aboriginal rights, and this nearly led him to be "run out of town" on a number of occasions.
In 1954 Ted was given the job of improving safety, health and hygiene nationally. In Geelong, men were dying of what appeared to be heart attacks in the holds of ships when loading wheat. Storemen and packers were also dying in the silos. Ted did some research and found that the symptoms of a heart attack were the same as phostoxin poisoning, which was a chemical released from the wheat. Ted met with the Wheat Board and got the conditions changed.
When Jim Healy died in 1961, Ted was overruled by the party in running for the general-secretary's job; the party put forward Tom Nelson. The right wing put up Charlie Fitzgibbon, who defeated Nelson. Ted appeared to be hurt by this situation, as he felt he had grassroots support and would have defeated Fitzgibbon.
In 1967 Ted left his assistant secretary's job and returned to work the Sydney waterfront. He organised a "rank and file ticket" against the Sydney branch officials during branch elections. When Ted left the waterfront, he worked at the Revesby Workers Club and led a strike there over wages and conditions.
In the latter period of his life Ted worked on his memoirs, which are currently being written up into his biography. He addressed a number of labour history conferences and meetings and several political conferences.
Ted is remembered with affection, a generous man who brewed his own beer, a boxer in his youth, a keen gardener, a crack billiards player, a loving husband, father and grandfather. He is survived by two daughters and two grandchildren. His wife, Wyck, passed away three weeks ago.
... Greg Mallory