BY ANDREW FERGUSON
Sam Wainwright's
article on “illegals” (GLW #513) was great in theory but demonstrated
a lack of understanding of the dynamics of contracting.
Employers have historically used many strategies to undermine union
achievements with the use of subcontract labour, most successfully in the
building industry. However, in recent years there has been a growing tendency
to use unlawful workers as cheap labour.
The majority of these workers are organised to come into the country
as tourists. The majority are not the poor but are in fact the best paid
tradespeople in their own country wanting to triple their wage working
in Australia. However, tripling their wages is about 50% of normal wages
here in Australia. The contractors that use these gangs of tourists to
work on sites undercut union companies when they put in tender prices.
It may be a great theory, i.e., simply organise the workers to be paid
correctly, but it is absurd. All of these workers are engaged in cash in
hand. Even if the workers needed the correct net pay, the boss has undercut
union companies because the boss is not paying group tax, payroll tax and
workers' compensation premiums worth 50% of the cost of labour.
In terms of the lecture on union responsibility, I can say with authority,
the NSW branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU)
has recovered more back pay and entitlements for unlawful workers than
the rest of the trade union movement in Australia combined. Millions of
dollars have been collected and paid. In fact, in the building industry
royal commission, the union was castigated for allegedly forcing four contractors
to pay $100,000 to a widow from South Korea.
On a weekly basis, the CFMEU recovers bad money for workers including
unlawfuls. We are particularly active in assisting unlawfuls principally
to teach contractors a lesson about labour standards in Australia. However,
we do not accept that we should allow a contractor to continue working
on sites using gangs of unlawfuls being paid cash in hand.
Finally, our efforts have not just focused on unlawful workers. More
than any other union, we have taken up the plight of workers sponsored
into the country by employers.
Not willing to pay proper union wages, employers in Australia are increasingly
resorting to sponsoring skilled labour into Australia under three-year
contracts, complaining of a shortage of labour here. This is bogus. These
workers are being used because they are compliant and generally not familiar
with labour laws and the role and relevance of unions. These workers are
in fact organised by the CFMEU in NSW.
We have had a number of successes in organising such workers into strikes
— the most prominent of these disputes was the Indian Stonemasons on strike
for five weeks at a Helensburgh site two years ago. We are currently liaising
with the South African trade union movement to get details on another immigration
racket where an African worker was engaged on a site at Lake Cargelligo.
We have sent a union activist to South Africa to ensure justice for this
worker.
[Andrew Ferguson is the NSW state secretary of the CFMEU.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 13, 2002.
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