The proposal was revived in 1891, when the FSIF established links with the Iron Moulders' Society of Victoria, Iron Molders' Union of North America, Machinery Moulders' Union of America, shortly followed by the Hungarian Trade Union of Ironfounders.
The group also corresponded with the Iron and Metal Founders and Their Labourers of Lower Austria, a Swiss union and three other Australian unions, but by the end of 1892, it had ceased to operate.
[2] In 1949, a mixture of opposition to the federation's withdrawal from the World Federation of Trade Unions, and the IMF's refusal to create a sectoral organisation for foundry workers, led six unions to form the International Federation of Foundry Workers (IFF).
The unions retained their IMF membership, and in 1951, the IMF organised a foundry workers' sectoral meeting, which agreed to establish a foundry workers' section.
The IMF committee vetoed the proposal, arguing that foundry work cut across many areas of the federation's work, and it offered only a consultation among foundry workers about the best way to represent them.