BY SAM WAINWRIGHT
SYDNEY — “The proceedings have been more like a prosecution of the
union than a genuine investigation of the building industry” — This was
how Andrew Ferguson, secretary of the NSW Construction, Forestry, Mining
and Energy Union’s construction and general branch described the Royal
Commission into the Building and Construction Industry.
The commission is part of the Coalition government’s third term attack
on the union movement. Its role is to tarnish the name of the CFMEU, one
of the country’s strongest unions, and so pave the way for more anti-union
legislation in the federal parliament. The commission headed by Terence
Cole will cost the taxpayer at least $60 million. Cole himself is being
paid $2500 per day for his “services”.
The commission sat in Sydney between June 3 and July 5. Green
Left Weekly spoke to Ferguson about what went on at the commission
and what the union plans to do in response.
“The [commission’s lawyers] said that they would provide evidence, based
on the four or five week period when they were in Sydney, of gross malpractice
by the CFMEU which would horrify the ordinary citizen. They’ve been unsuccessful
in doing that”, Ferguson explained.
The commission’s hearings give employers and anyone else with a grudge
against the CFMEU a platform from which to make accusations against the
union and its members. The big business media has latched on to the opportunity
to run lurid but unproven stories of union “thuggery”.
Ferguson explained that many accusations flowed from union officials
simply demanding employers abide by their legal obligations: “They had
scores of employers complain about what most people would regard as routine
activity by any union campaigning for enterprise bargaining agreements.
There are employers, particularly in regional NSW, that have not had contact
with any union organisation in the past. Often they’ve not been familiar
with the safety legislation in NSW that gives union officials a right of
entry.”
Other branches of the CFMEU have boycotted the commission hearings,
arguing that to comply simply gives it credibility. The NSW branch decided
to participate, trying to force employer abuses on to its agenda and into
the public debate.
“There is a bit of a debate”, Ferguson said, “and different branches
have got a different emphasis on the issue. [There are] hundreds of employers
across the country putting in statements and giving evidence. If it’s not
contradicted, it then represents evidence and we think that it’s helpful
to their agenda. We have put in 66 statements contradicting their evidence
and the evidence we have put in has been quite substantial.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t believe that this is a politically motivated
royal commission, but we believe that [putting in statements about employer
abuses] makes [Cole’s] job more difficult and with a lot of evidence contrary
to the employer, he’s then got to, in his final recommendations, convince
the Democrats and Greens to run a legislative attack on the union.”
Ferguson explained that the union had provided the commission with “box
loads” of information regarding abuses by employers, including workplace
safety abuses and details of deaths that have occurred on Sydney building
sites. “We forced him to listen to the mum of a 17 year old who was killed
at Broadway. That got some positive media for the union.”
The union also lodged a 100-page report on workers’ compensation fraud
that shows about 30% of contractors are ripping off the system and evidence
of “serial offending” employers that set up and bankrupt companies on a
yearly basis to defraud tens of millions of dollars from the tax system.
The union also provided evidence of a practice they call “no proprietary
limited, no start”. This is where workers are coerced into incorporating,
forming companies and becoming contract workers in order to get work or
keep their jobs. “We’ve even got employers that are forcing apprentices
to form companies. The royal commission’s decided not to investigate any
of these issues.”
Ferguson did not shy away from admitting the damage done to the union
by the revelation that one of its organisers, Sammy Manna, had retracted
a false statement he made to the commission. A female employer testified
that Manna had threatened her and her children. In revenge, Manna claimed
that he had had an affair with the woman.
“He denied that he’d threatened the woman but his response to a bogus
allegation was that he’d put in an equally bogus one. He’s now facing a
perjury charge. I think there’s a lot of people in the community that are
probably very offended by what he did, but they don’t appreciate his predicament
— he was subject to an allegation that’s got no substance, that was published
in a newspaper with him not having any right to sue for defamation.
“ Nobody in the industry, including employers, gives any credence to
the allegations made against [Manna]. But now he’ll suffer the consequences
of fabricating a bogus claim.”
Ferguson said that the union educated its members about the commission
before it came to Sydney: “We had about 150 stop-work meetings and spoke
to about 25,000 building workers face to face explaining the royal commission,
our agenda, the intention of the government and the role of the media.
We explained that the media barons would be putting forward scurrilous
accusations against the union; we explained that we couldn’t sue any of
the newspapers for defamation because any accusation in the royal commission
can be published. We’ve done a lot of publicity work with our own membership.
“I think we’ve also demonstrated to our membership that we’ve sought
to get a genuine investigation. We’ve now exhausted our patience; we’ve
failed to get them genuinely interested in our concerns. We’ve participated
in their system to a certain extent and arising from their failure to listen
to our concern there’s now going to be a mass safety protest of building
workers in Sydney on August 28.”
The CFMEU will hold another series of stop-work meetings leading up
to the protest, which Ferguson expects up to 10,000 building workers to
attend.
From Green Left Weekly, July 17, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly
home page.
