Growing up the son of Nando Lelli, Paul Lelli remembers colleagues and workmates calling at all hours to speak with his father about issues they were having at the steelworks, but it wasn't until a comment from his a teacher that Paul started to put together the scale of what his dad was involved in.
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"I remember the social studies teacher talking to me and saying, 'Ah, Lelli, left-winger,'" Paul said.
"I was a bit puzzled, I remember coming home and saying to Dad, my teacher knows you play soccer, but I told him, you weren't at left wing, Dad was a left full back."
Following this, Ferdinando 'Nando' Lelli sat his son down and explained to him what it meant to be a rank-and-file unionist at the Port Kembla steelworks in the 1970s.
As the head of the Port Kembla branch of the Federated Ironworkers Union, it was not an uncommon occurrence at the Lelli household for the patriarch to be on television, the radio and in the day's paper. But to sons Paul and Glenn, their father was also just 'Dad' who played table tennis, loved soccer and never understood their games of backyard cricket.
Nando Lelli was born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy on December 21, 1931. Growing up under the fascist regime, Nando was surrounded by a cacophony of ideologies, from supporters of Mussolini to communists, albeit with little middle ground in between. This political environment and the harsh material realities of living in rural Italy at the time had a profound impact upon Nando for the rest of his life.
Even after World War Two, with little job security and the chance of a better life, Nando chose to look overseas for opportunities, tossing up between Canada and Australia. Ultimately he settled on Australia and emigrated in 1957.
After arriving, Mr Lelli moved between picking grapes in Mildura, harvesting sugar cane in Ingham in northern Queensland and labouring in Sydney before settling in the Illawarra with his wife June and working for EPT, Electric Power Transmission, where he could use his training from Italy.
But, during the credit squeeze in the 1960s, working as a contractor became less viable, and Nando began working at the steelworks. It would be in this role that Nando put into practice the values and skills that would lead him to become a giant of the union movement in the Illawarra and Australia.
Joining the Federated Ironworkers Union, Nando saw how the existing union leadership privileged those workers who could speak English over what was then a multilingual and multicultural workforce.
Representing the rank-and-file, Nando was elected as President of the Port Kembla branch. This set off what Paul described as an "exciting" time for the family, with June instrumental in supporting the work Nando did.
"I don't know how many union officials made their home number available to members but I was a light sleeper and Dad was a heavy sleeper so I'd be answering these phones and then going in and saying 'Dad, so and so is on the phone. Something's happened.'"
During his time as a union leader, Nando drew both support and opposition, something his sons witnessed first hand. Glenn recalled working at the steelworks in his early 20s when his father was well known.
"People either loved me and wanted to shake my hand, and some people wanted to punch me in the face," he said.
Not only did Nando overturn the existing union hierarchy, he was also the first non-Anglo leader of such a major union. Paul said this earned him racially-based epithets such as 'the Wog from Wollongong'.
"There were some of the most bats--- rumours that he had to face. There was one put out that my father had been sent to Australia by the Italian Communist Party and had been trained by the Soviet Union. We joked and said 'Well Dad, let me hear your Russian.'"
Despite these, Nando remained unswerving in his commitment to improve the rights and conditions of those he worked alongside in what was at the time an unsafe and challenging workplace. Nando gained the respect of his comrades not only in representing their views to management, but in his principled attitude to his position.
Paul recalled one instance when Neville Wran gifted Nando tickets to a soccer game between Australia and the Brazilian team FC Santos, when legendary soccer player Pele was playing for the team.
"I was so excited, and then I just saw my father rip the tickets up, 'We're not going,' he said."
Nando's time as union leader at the steelworks saw some of the most difficult years for the workers, with mass layoffs of 10,000 workers during a global downturn. Nando is also credited as a leading force in Steel Industry Agreement in 1983, which saved the steelworks at a time when its future was not assured.
Current national secretary to the successor union to the Federated Ironworkers Union, Daniel Walton said Mr Lelli dedicated his life to helping Australians who would have otherwise struggled to have their voices heard.
"He was a formidable negotiator, a clever industrial strategist, and a genuine people person," Mr Walton said.
"His unwavering advocacy on behalf of workers will remain a shining example to all of us in the union movement."
In addition to his leadership of the Federated Ironworkers Union, Nando Lelli also helmed the South Coast Labour Council.
Current SCLC president Arthur Rorris said Lelli's work in the Illawarra was of national significance.
"Nando Lelli was to the steel industry in Port Kembla what Jack Mundey was to the construction industry," Mr Rorris said.
"He encouraged his rank and file to think outside the square and outside the gates of the steelworks to look after the community that they lived in."
Describing his father as an old school socialist, Paul said his father explained to him his advocacy in simple terms.
"In today's society, there are people who, for whatever reason, cannot defend themselves. And they are entitled to be defended. That's my Dad."
Nando Lelli passed away at 12.40am on Sunday morning, and is survived by his two sons and two grandchildren, Cara and Matthew.
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