Ian Mullen was born in Elsternwick in 1946, he attended schools in Healesville, Warragul and Frankston before leaving school to worked at a joinery, G.N. Hendy’s, as an apprentice wood machinist, where he worked for five years while he completed his apprenticeship. He then travelled around Australia and worked as a wood machinist and as a labourer and a member of the construction union when Weipa first started.
After this he worked at Sherlock and Hay at Frankston and rejoined the Union. He worked there for 8-9 years and then went to AV Jennings in Springvale in 1982 working on a big band saw cutting up oregon. There were 600 employees at that stage. AV Jennings was eventually sold to Peter Jackson who downsized the work place by selling off the aluminium to Stegbar and changed the company name to Canterbury Windows. Employed a band saw operator, Ian was made an assistant shop steward in 1986, he then became shop steward in 1989. He held the position of senior shop steward until 12 months before his retirement in November 2008 when he became President of the Victorian Forestry Branch of the CFMEU FFPD. In 1992 Ian was elected OHS rep, a position he held up until 2007. Canterbury Windows was one of the first CMFEU FFPD workplaces to have an elected OH&S rep and an active committee on site.
Ian has been married to Laraine for 26 years, he has a daughter, two step sons who are both employed at Canterbury and one grandson and three granddaughters.
Ian recalled an incident at Canterbury that occurred around 1991. A production manager kept parking his car in the forklift area despite a “no parking” sign. After this had gone on for some time a member “accidentally” put the forklift through both doors of the car. The manager tried to sack the worker but Ian successfully defended his job by arguing that the sign clearly banned parking in the forklift area as this was a safety issue and that the sun was in the workers eyes at the time of the collision and as the employer had refused to issue sunglasses, the member could not be held responsible for the incident. The worker remained in employment at Canterbury until 1996 when he left to open a tattoo parlour.
Ian has been a stalwart of the Union throughout his years of membership and was an outstanding delegate who was as solid as a rock when it came to supporting his co-workers. Ian can still be relied upon to attend every rally to march with the Union come rain, hail or shine.
