Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association

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SDA

Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association
Founded	14 May 1908
Headquarters	Melbourne, Victoria
Location	Australia
Members	209,299 (as at 31 December 2022).[1]
Key people	Michael Donovan, National President Gerard Dwyer, National Secretary
Affiliations	ACTU, UNI, ALP
Website	national.sda.com.au

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The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA) is the largest private sector trade union in Australia, representing retail, fast-food and warehousing workers,^[2] and has branches in every state and territory. Its membership is predominantly in casual and insecure employment within the retail and fast food sectors. The union also represents a significant membership of workers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.^[3]

The main categories of workers covered by the SDA are retail, fast food and warehousing workers^[4] but the SDA also covers reserve and backdock employees, pharmacies, footwear repairing, modelling, and hairdressing/beauty. The SDA has overlapping with other trade unions and their areas of coverage, such as the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union in the case of retail meat employees and the United Workers Union's coverage of warehousing employees and bakers employees.

The SDA has branches across Australia. There is the Victorian Branch; New South Wales & ACT Branch; Newcastle & Northern Branch; Queensland Branch; South Australian/Northern Territory & Broken Hill Branch; Western Australian Branch; and the Tasmanian Branch. The SDA is affiliated to several organisations, which include the Australian Labor Party (ALP), the Australian Council of Trade Unions, and the global union federation, UNI Global Union. Through its affiliation to the ALP, the union has maintained strong political involvement.