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When the Prime Minister attends a function and pays tribute to a person, then you know that that person is a giant in their field.

Today, at a function organised by family and friends of our former Branch and Union Official, Colin Cooper, was remembered by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Col passed away on 1 August 2024.

Col was a giant in industrial relations in Australia.

While our Branch is now part of CEPU, it was formerly a stand alone Union known as the PTTA and later the ATEA.

Col was an official for many years and won many game changing battles as advancing technology impacted heavily on jobs and skills

Prime Minister Albanese speaking beside an iconic photo of Col Cooper

Col Cooper 1941 - 2024. By Peggy Trompf

Colin Cooper was born to working-class parents in 1941. Raised in the western suburbs, he went to local Yagoona public schools and became a mean basketballer, soccer and footy player.

He did well at school, where he developed an interest in history. Colin began work with the PMG as a Telegram Messenger ('telegram boy') in 1957, joined the PMG Training School in 1958 as a technician trainee and became a Senior Technician in 1965.

During that time, he was an active union member of the Postal and Telecommunications Technicians Association (PTTA) and, in 1966, was elected as its NSW Assistant Branch Secretary. (In 1975, the PTTA became the Australian Telecommunication Employee Association (ATEA).

With continuing amalgamation, the names were changed to the ATEA/ATPOA, CWU Telecommunication and Services Branch, and the CEPU (Communications Division - Telecommunications and Services Branches). In 1973, Colin was elected as the NSW Branch Secretary of the union.

He held that position until 1995 when he became the full-time National Divisional President of the Communications Division of the CEPU. As NSW Branch Secretary and Federal President of the Union from early 1970, he was involved in all major industrial campaigns and negotiations.

These included the establishment of Telecom and Australia Post, the shorter hours and nine-day fortnight agreement of 1975, the staffing and technology disputes arising from introducing new telecommunications technology and all wage negotiations. Other activities included campaigns against the establishment of other than government telecommunications carriers and against the privatisation of government enterprises.

He led major campaigns against the privatisation of Telecom. In 1973, he became a member of the NSW Board of the Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA) and was an active supporter of trade union training. Colin was an executive member of the Asian division of the International affiliate organisation the Post Telegraph and Telephone International (PTTI). Colin served as the full-time senior union leader at the state and national level for 41 years.

On his retirement in 2007, he completed an Honours degree in history and industrial relations at the University of Sydney. I met Col at a union function in 1989. Our long and happy life together was interrupted by Colin's diagnosis of the degenerative brain disease, Frontotemporal dementia. He died peacefully in his sleep on 1 August 2024.

T&S Branch Assistant Secretary John Ellery and Alex Jansen former T&S Branch Secretary with the PM

Retired Telecommunications Employees Association

Members will remember Col as the State Secretary of our Union and the Federal President over several decades.

I also remember Col as a 1958-year technician in training, the same year as I was. During Col's period in office, I was a Branch State Councillor, State Vice President and Federal Councillor; as a result, I got to know him very well, and we became close friends.

During Col's period in office, many changes came to the workplace. The Union had to contend with the impact of new technologies and the new competitive environment for delivering telecommunication services.

Management sought to downsize staff numbers affecting members' career opportunities and employment prospects. Through Col's leadership and the support of members, the Union's response was to face these challenges with the key objective of providing the best possible outcomes for members.

The1970s were turbulent times when the Union fought for and won a shorter working week including a nine-day fortnight and significant wage increases. More was to come in 1978, when the Union faced a significant dispute over the introduction of new exchange technology, in the first instance, ARE11 and AXE technologies.

Telecom's objective was to reduce technical staff numbers significantly. The dispute's outcome achieved greater acceptance of the Union's position.

As a result, there were two major industrial agreements (MEMO and CEMO for metropolitan and country exchange maintenance organisations, respectively).

The industrial agreements detailed the principles for a staff organisation within an exchange district, offering a more progressive technical staff structure. These agreements were to last more than fifteen years.

The late Bob Parkinson, Bruce Maclean, and our current members Bruce Coxall and Paul Rewhorn were heavily involved.

Shortly after I became a member of the NSW Branch Council, Col encouraged me to take on the roles of State Vice President and Federal Councillor. The Union was facing a range of management-initiated reorganisations.

Col entrusted me with leading the national reorganisation of PABX maintenance and restructuring the City of Sydney operations district. Both organisations were about to face the threat of competition on a significant scale. I will never forget the confidence that Col showed in me.

Likewise, customer installation was undergoing a significant change.

To the Union, management seemed content to retreat from the customer equipment market despite the ongoing appreciable profits and demand.

Again, Vince Haywood and Jim Hall provided leadership by showing management that there were viable means of maintaining market share.

Col and NSW Branch were always in full support.

It is appropriate to mention that the Union achieved these successes during a challenging period when Col was in office.

I am proud of our Union because it has always canvassed its members' opinions on issues. Democracy was never out of the thoughts of our officials and other elected representatives.

Turning to current times. Col spent several years in an aged care facility in Avalon. Col is survived by his wife, Peggy and three children.

John Lane