Spanners in Beattie's dirty work

Spanners in Beattie's dirty works

BY ANDREW PHILLIPS

BRISBANE — Workers at QBuild, the state government agency responsible
for building all Queensland government buildings, schools and offices,
are fighting for justice after being locked out on May 21.

The workers' attempts to negotiate a new enterprise bargaining agreement
have been stymied by management since the process began in November. QBuild
used the tactic of holding off talks with the union, the Communication,
Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), so as to minimise the period during
which workers could take legal industrial action.

Only after the CEPU threatened to take action did talks start. But when
workers implemented paperwork bans, QBuild management locked them out of
their vans and tried to relocate them to other work sites. This action
by QBuild was deemed illegal by the industrial relations commission.

State industrial relations minister Gordon Nuttall then made an offer,
which was rejected by the workers. The inadequacy of Nuttall's proposals
undermined workers' confidence in the government and the union picketed
the ALP state conference in early June.

Rather than addressing the workers' demand for a 5% pay rise, the government
has focussed on superannuation.

“There have been 400-strong mass meetings”, Brett Machin, a CEPU state
organiser, told Green Left Weekly. Motions passed unanimously by
the union's state conference on May 25-26 condemned QBuild for its lockout,
supported direct “in-good-faith” negotiations between the government and
QBuild workers, and called for a 36.25-hour week for all crown employees.

ALP Premier Peter Beattie was subsequently quoted in the June 2 Sunday
Mail as saying: “You will not get it. If we were to do that it would
send us broke.”

Machin said: “You wouldn't expect a state Labor Party [branch] to be
locking its members out like the government of [former premier] Joh Bjelke-Petersen
or a multinational like Rio Tinto.”

Arguing that the union would fight the government “politically”, Machin
stated: “Beattie has treated the workers with contempt. Workers are getting
more disillusioned with the ALP and they are thinking about their fees.”

From Green Left Weekly, July 3, 2002.

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From GLW issue 498