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The other branches subsequently adopted this model for plant organisation.  In Victoria shop committees were set up at the Melbourne and Corio works in 1917, mainly upon the initiative of C. Coupe.  Coupe saw the formation of shop committees as a crucial turning point in the union's development in that they would

ultimately form part of the machinery of government for the workers when they are prepared to take control of the industries, to be run in the interests of the working class.

The structure of the shop committees followed the Queensland model closely and there was considerable interest in forming district councils based on these units.  In South Australia, on the other hand, the shop committee at Gepps Cross grew naturally out of the local union administration at this centralised slaughtering centre.  It, too, took a similar form to that of Queensland.

Advocates of the One Big Union often pointed to the AMIEU structure as a prototype of industrial unionism and 'job control'.  But while the popular term 'job control' was a misnomer in this context in that the shop committees functioned primarily as a negative control over  management, they did serve to inspire in the meatworkers a very powerful vision of workers' control.  This objective they announced in stentorian tones:  'we will be satisfied when we own the meatworks'.  Describing this attitude in action, Captain Howell, the manager at the Ross River works, related how 'the men go about the works not caring whether they work or not, and as though they were a unit entirely apart from the works altogether'.  The operation of the committees certainly helped to consolidate the cohesion of the workers at each plant, fostering a sense of some degree of 'control' over their work lives which has continued to be an important force in their industrial organisation.  The companies, not surprisingly, became increasingly apprehensive about the extent to which the committees effectively circumscribed their managerial functions.

The syndicalist mood was not restricted to the plant itself.  Particularly in the provincial centres where meatworks dominated the local communities, syndicalism impinged upon the whole gamut of community activities.  Outside the metropolitan areas, regional isolation and localism had an important impact on the labour movement, especially in Queensland.  Isolated from head offices, the district sub-branches enjoyed considerable local autonomy; consequently, the strength of the labour movement lay in the regional alliance of trade unions.  The formation of sturdily independent provincial Labour Councils was an outward sign of the groundswell of solidarity.  This parochialism reinforced the emotive appeal of 'job control' in juxtaposition to the somewhat intangible, and 'foreign', ownership and management of the meatworks - an endemic conflict of interest when complex and capital-intensive industries function within unsophisticated communities.

The meatworkers took an active part in shaping the local communities within which they worked.  Particularly in isolated or 'frontier' communities the meatworkers were forced to take the initiative in organising the amenities and services they needed.  In all states the shop committees took an active role in establishing and supporting local ambulance, fire, hospital and transport services, educational facilities in the form of Schools of Art or libraries, mortality funds and recreational amenities.  As communities became more settled, it was customary for the local sub-branch of the union to nominate representatives to the governing boards of civic institutions and for members to be active in municipal politics.  The schemes for co-operative enterprises advanced in the 1920's grew out of this tradition.