The United Workers Union has a long history – being a successor of the Watchmen, Caretakers and Cleaners Union of New South Wales (W.C.C.U), which was first established in 1910. The W.C.C.U allowed workers from industries that weren’t represented by other trade unions to join – making it one of the first Australian unions to represent several highly casualised and isolated industries. In 1915 the W.C.C.U amalgamated with the Victorian branch – changing the unions name to the Federated Miscellaneous Workers’ Union (fondly called the ‘Missos’) to represent the broad range of industries the union covered. Members of the Missos played a key role in winning some of the conditions we might take for granted today – like paid sick leave, annual leave, and the forty-hour work week. After more than 100 years and several amalgamations (the largest being the recent amalgamation of United Voice and the National Union of Workers), what was once the W.C.C.U is now the United Workers Union – one of Australia’s largest unions, with more than 150,000 members in 45+ industries.