The cramped office space on the second floor of the small building opposite Wollongong Railway Station belies the massive power its occupant has wielded over the past 75 years.
It is reputedly the best organised regional labour council in the country, yet its day–to-day business has commonly been run by a lone secretary with the support of an office assistant.
So how did the South Coast Labour Council emerge as a potent force?
The left dominated SCLC has always had a strong sense of regional independence, wrote Ray Markey and Shirley Nixon in their contribution to an upcoming book on the Australian union movement.
This often placed it in “ideological and political and even territorial and industrial conflict” with the NSW Labor Council.
SCLC secretary Arthur Rorris said not only has the council maintained its independence, it was also unique in its strong form of community unionism. “The SCLC has viewed its role to champion issues of the broader community and not just the masses inside the workplace,” he said.
“That’s included issues from the environment, war and peace, racism and injustice, to general issues of social inequality in our society. One of the earliest issues that led to the formation of the SCLC was the dark, terrible days of the Depression and the high rates of unemployment that stripped many workers of their dignity.

Officially established in 1928, the SCLC began life as the Illawarra Trades and Labour Council (TLC).
Ex-miner Steve Best was appointed as the first paid secretary after he was sacked from the Coledale colliery two years previously – for following union policy. With fellow ex-miner Paddy Molloy, it was the beginning of a strong and united regional labour movement.
The SCLC became involved in some of Australia’s most important struggles for worker’s rights – from the mass unemployment created from the Great Depression, to the downturns of the ‘70s and ‘80s including right to work marches, the Jobs for Women campaign and the uphill battles for coal and steel industry jobs.
Broader community issues included lobbying for the establishment of the University of Wollongong, the organising of the South Coast Pensioners’ Coordinating Committee, the union-based South Coast Workers’ Health Centre and peace rallies during the Vietnam War and the most recent war in Iraq.
In the 1990s, the SCLC supported green bans on development projects which it considered socially undesirable.
“The range of these activities was unusual for a union,” Markey and Nixon wrote.

The past decade has perhaps posed the greatest challenge to the SCLC.
In 1999, the region’s trade union movement faced a bitter split when breakaway body, the Illawarra Council of Trade Unions, headed by Arthur Rorris, threatened the SCLC’s existence. The departure of thirteen affiliated unions disenchanted with then secretary Paul Matter’s leadership led to a full meeting of the NSW Labor Council. Just hours before a vote to disaffiliate the SCLC in favour of rival ICTU, Matters resigned. A new-look SCLC was created with Arthur Rorris as secretary.
Matters told the Illawarra Mercury at the time: “It became very obvious in the last couple of weeks that particular so-called left wing unions were quite prepared to see the South Coast Labour Council destroyed.”

Another challenge has been the growth of the service industry, small business and casualisation of the workforce and less reliance on the steel industry.
A decline in membership numbers has forced the SCLC to look at its methods of operation and tactics to remain relevant.
“These are tough times. There’s no doubt about that.” Rorris said. “We’re working under a ferocious conservative Federal Government and there’s a whole host of economic and social changes that have made life difficult.
“What we seek to do is to build alliances with some of our traditional enemies, with some of the business community who also have an interest to create jobs in the region. The right to work has and will continue to be one of the tenets of a regional labour council like ours. The object remains the same – to improve the conditions of our lot, the working class.
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Extract from Illawarra Mercury - The Weekender, Saturday Sept 20, 2003