Award documents prepared in Union office for negotiation process.

Collection includes minute books, correspondence, some records of disputes involving the Union, details of awards and other miscellaneous material.

Raymond Harbridge, in his A sourcebook of New Zealand trade unions and employee organisations, Wellington, 1994, under the heading Northern (except Gisborne) Road Transport & Motor & Horse Drivers and Their Assistants, gives the following brief history:

Northern Drivers Union registered in 1948. Gisborne Drivers merged with Northern Drivers (May 1986), the combined group merged with Northern Distribution Union (July 1989), which in turn became part of NZ Distribution Union (June 1992).

The fair minutes in this collection predate this note. It appears that the union in 1935 was the New Zealand Federated Drivers and Related Trades Industrial Association of Workers [Auckland Branch]. From 1939 to 1942, the title is given as the Auckland Road Transport and Motor and Horse Drivers' and Their Assistants’ Industrial Union of Workers. In some instances reference is made simply to the Drivers’ Union.

Minutes after 1949 are rough drafts only, though correspondence and awards and disputes extend to 1979. It is assumed that further records are held in the office of the NZ Distribution Union.

The scrapbook, Item 8.1, contains clippings relating to the Bakers’ Union; the connection being, perhaps, through Bakers’ Drivers.