Construction unionists stop work over VSU

Brianna Pike, Melbourne

Students campaigning against "voluntary student unionism" at Deakin University won a victory against the university administration on March 25. The university's attempts to use security guards and police to forcefully remove a campaign stall and anti-VSU activists from the campus were defeated when Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union workers downed their tools in support of the students.

Deakin University is currently constructing a multi-level car park and it is a CFMEU-organised site. "When these workers, whose unions are also under attack by the Howard government, heard of the news that students trying to defend their unions were being threatened with arrest, they immediately stopped work and came over to our stall where police were getting ready to drag us away", said Afshin Nikouseresht, an anti-VSU campaigner at Deakin University.

CFMEU shop steward Alby Williams told Green Left Weekly: "We were just giving the students our support in numbers. We asked our industrial officer to talk with the university management and said if you want your building finished you'll leave the students alone.

"We didn't want the police to be heavy handed with the students so we made our presence felt. Everybody has a right to freedom of speech. All they were doing was voicing their opinion."

After a 20-minute altercation between police, university administration and CFMEU members, the police and university administration were forced to retreat and the campaign stall continued. "The anti-VSU campaign at Deakin has found a new and powerful ally. This was a great victory for activists at Deakin and more generally for the anti-VSU campaign. If we can get the workers on side we are much more powerful in our fight", said Nikouseresht.

From Green Left Weekly, April 6, 2005.

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From GLW issue 621