Following the dissolution of the Balmain Labourers' Union its members were reorganised along industrial lines, with the broad coverage of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the shipbuilding industry split mainly between the Federated Ironworkers' Association and the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers' Union of Port Jackson, the latter being formally established in 1900.

[4] Working conditions and pay for ship painters and dockers in the early 20th century were poor, with 80 percent of the union's membership in 1939 earning less than the basic wage.

This meant workers had to wait outside shipyards and port workshops, where foremen would choose different men to work each day, depending on the requirements of the employer.

The union made significant efforts to regulate this system of hiring, including introducing limits on the minimum length of employment and the number of hours workers would wait each day, but with little success.

Conditions changed dramatically during World War II, as increased demand in the shipbuilding industry led to a labour shortage.

This development was resisted by employers, who launched a lockout of all painters and dockers in the Port of Newcastle, but agreement was reached in the Commonwealth Arbitration Court in 1946 allowing the practice to continue.

[6] As work declined in the industry, employers began to seek the removal of the union roster system, provoking an eleven-week strike at the Garden Island dockyard in Sydney in 1976 and a sixteen-week dispute in Newcastle in 1978.

After the Industrial Relations Act 1988 was passed by the Hawke Government unions with fewer than 1,000 members had to show why, in the public interest, their existence should continue.