Printing and Kindred Industries Union

It represented production workers in the printing industry, including compositing, typesetting, letterpress printing, lithographic plate-making, electrotyping, stereotyping and bookbinding, and the manufacture of paper and cardboard products, such as paper bags, envelopes, cardboard boxes and cartons.

Approximately half of all members were qualified tradespeople, with the remainder semi-skilled or unskilled workers.

[1][2] In 1976 the union held an eight-and-a-half-week strike against John Fairfax and Sons over the introduction of computerised typesetting equipment.

[1] In 1986 the PKIU absorbed the Federated Photo Engravers, Photo-Lithographers and Photogravure Employees' Association of Australia, which had been active since 1910 as a small union of skilled workers in South Australian and Victorian newspaper offices.

The VPOU had been registered in 1987, but existed well before this date as the Printing Trades General Workers' Union.