Workers' and civil rights coalition formed

Wednesday, November 17, 1993 - 11:00

Paul Benedek, Brisbane

On September 14, 400 people attended the launch of the Workers and Civil Rights Coalition (WCRC). Griffith University industrial relations professor David Peetz, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) construction division national secretary Dave Noonan and civil rights lawyer Julian Burnside outlined an alarming array of attacks on civil and workers' rights.

WCRC secretary Melissa White outlined some of the rights under attack — from the removal of the right to silence for building workers to the end of the right to a family life. "Every AWA [individual contract] has removed at least one 'protected' condition, while 16% of AWAs have removed every single one", Peetz said.

Noonan related how Nathan Park, a 24-year-old, was crushed to death at work under six tonnes of concrete. His employer was found guilty, but fined only $100,000 (the maximum allowable is $250,000). "But the director never paid a cent", Noonan revealed. "He put the company in voluntary liquidation before the case, didn't pay the subcontractors or anyone, then set up a new job just up the road."

The subcontractors protested at the new set-up, but what was the result of Howard's IR laws? "The CFMEU was actually fined, our members were fined", said Noonan.

Referring to the 107 CFMEU members in Western Australia facing fines of up to $28,600 each for defending health and safety, Noonan said: "Howard thought the 107 in WA were a soft target, but he was wrong. Unionists are rallying to their defence around the country."

Burnside began by quipping that if the new "democratic values" test suggested by PM John Howard and Labor leader Kim Beazley for tourists came into effect, "Howard would fail it". He lambasted the government's brutal refugee policy and its "blind, stupid support for Guantanamo Bay, which the US deliberately set up in order to deny access to human and civil rights". Burnside concluded with a familiar but poignant message: "Alone we will lose — together we will win."

Donations were collected for the 107 WA construction workers.