PERTH — Two thousand building workers rallied on the steps of Parliament House on September 24 to protest another death in the construction industry. Five days earlier, Des Walsh, a 47-year-old rigger with three children, died on a construction site. A prefabricated wall collapsed, crushing him in a tangle of concrete and roof beams.

CFMEU state secretary Kevin Reynolds told the striking workers that the tragedy was a result of employer greed and a lack of action to protect workers' safety by the ALP state government. Any hopes, he said, that workplace safety would improve under Labor had been dashed.

According to Reynolds, Worksafe WA has failed to effectively police safety regulations. The problem, he said, had resulted in the resignation, without replacement, of many inspectors employed by Worksafe.

The rally also heard that a downgrading of training in the industry has led to avoidable injuries and deaths, despite $7 million collected by the Building Construction Industry Fund for this purpose.

New techniques involving the pouring of prefabricated wall panels on-site are now widespread in the industry. While it has increased profits, the use of untrained and unlicensed workers to erect the panels has led to a greater rate of accidents.

Reynolds also condemned the royal commission into the building industry. “When we [step in to protect workers' safety] we end up with a dirty rotten royal commission trying to put workers in jail”, he said. Reynolds has called for a moratorium on work on WA building sites until an inquiry has been held into safety practices in the industry.

Reynolds also called on all CFMEU members to take strike action on October 2, and rally against the royal commission's latest trip to Perth. Reynolds is expecting to be asked by Commissioner Terence Cole to provide names of shop stewards. Like Victorian CFMEU secretary Martin Kingham, he is pledging not to hand over a single name.

From Green Left Weekly, October 2, 2002.
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