He was a long-serving official in the Municipal Employees Union from the 1920s, initially as an organiser (1925–1937) and industrial officer (1937–1946).
[1][2] During the 1930s, he clashed with the Australian Workers' Union over their handling of pay disputes for municipal employees.
[1] In 1954, in the leadup to the 1955 Labor split, he was a key supporter of federal intervention in the Victorian Labor Party to disband the existing state executive and confront the hard right-wing Industrial Groups, and was a public spokesperson for the unions that supported federal leader H. V. Evatt's stance on the issue.
[4][5][6] He was also a member of the Local Authorities Superannuation Board from 1947 to 1958 and a director of the Industrial Printing and Publicity Company from 1948 to 1977.
[1] In 1924 he married Ethelwynne Bowen, with whom he had two children; a later marriage on 5 November 1955 was to Lorna Jean Peters, née Forbes.