The sensational reports of alleged thuggery and corruption in the construction industry have obscured the political treachery of Labor’s attacks on the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU).
Labor’s administrative takeover of the CFMEU in August last year is successfully dismantling this once militant union in a way that de-registration could never have done.
The mass sackings of union officials, industrial and other staff, the mainstream media’s exaggeration of its “crimes”, despite very few convictions, and the lack of solidarity from other unions has inflicted enormous damage on to CFMEU shop stewards and members more generally.
The media-driven frenzy could very well lead to increased worker deaths on construction sites.
The CFMEU has been a powerful example of what can be achieved by militant unionism. Since its beginnings in 1992, when most construction industry unions were bought into one big construction division, the CFMEU played a critical role in winning safety measures, and better pay and conditions for its members.
In Victoria, the CFMEU’s strongest branch, campaigns to drive down fatality rates were built by calling statewide stoppages every time a worker was killed. Unionists also implemented site audits, safety meetings and inductions for all workers before they came on to the site. They were only too happy to keep workers in the shed until the bosses applied the correct safety procedures.
These were not popular moves with construction companies (or governments) but, Australia-wide, they did help to halve the fatality rate over a 10-year period from 10.4 fatalities per 100,000 workers in 1989-1992 to 5.71 fatalities per 100,000 in 2003. Compare the rate in 2024, which is down to 2.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers.
Even Mark Irving, the administrator overseeing the CFMEU’s carve-up, admitted to the Queensland Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU that unions are needed in such an unsafe industry. He also noted that deregistration of the CFMEU, without an alternative union, would lead to industry chaos. What he is creating is a tame cat, Labor-compliant union.
The building industry has always been a high-profit industry with cut-throat deadlines. Politely asking for improvements would never have achieved positive safety outcomes with good conditions.
The CFMEU did not make the industry “dangerous”, nor did it employ the bikies or gangsters that have been a feature of the mainstream media’s focus. All those who featured in Channel 9’s 60 Minutes program “Building Bad” were employed by the bosses to protect their super profits.
I was employed by the CFMEU in Victoria for nearly 20 years as a health and safety teacher. I heard blood curdling accounts of injuries and deaths on site, as well as intimidation from bosses with firearms. There is probably no other industry where union organisers are bashed and threatened with being thrown off scaffolds for trying to defend their members.
Yet, these are the people who are being sacked by Irving under Labor’s watch.
In his Second Bi Annual Report, in September, Irving boasted in point 18: “In NSW, in excess of 75% of the organisers have been replaced since August 2024. In Queensland and SA that number is about 50%.”
A source told Green Left recently that, since last year, industrial staff in the CFMEU in Victoria have been reduced from 41 to 14. Hundreds of years’ worth of workplace experience, expertise and courage have been lost, all the while using members’ money.
Not a single Victorian CFMEU official, or organiser, has been charged with, or found guilty of, corruption.
Indeed, John Setka, former Victorian State Secretary, has only been charged with sending threatening emails to Irving. If they are anything like the crude texts he sent to anti-corruption barrister Geoffrey Watson, about being a “f**king fat, ugly c**t” then he is guilty of using sexist language, which is not a criminal offence.
Yet for his “crime”, Setka was led by police out of his unit in Footscray early one morning, in handcuffs, with the media on hand ready to sensationalise.
Labor’s message to unions is that if they do not do its bidding, you will be treated like a criminal.
Green Left is not defending corruption or criminal behaviour. The Greenfields, former CFMEU leaders in NSW who pled guilty to accepting bribes, have done the movement a disservice. Of course, there is no on-the-spot reporting of bosses who try to bribe unions.
Those following Queensland’s investigation into the CFMEU can see the sleight of hand when claims of misconduct are portrayed as union thuggery, only, when in fact, a deeper issue is at play — giving the Australian Workers’ Union coverage of construction workers because it is seen as compliant.
Meanwhile, Irving told the inquiry in late November that former CFMEU officials, including Queensland secretary Michael Ravbar and assistant secretary Jade Ingham will be expelled. They have now been sacked.
Labor, using its own Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Administration) Bill 2024, is now legally allowed to ignore natural justice.
The CFMEU has some defenders, including Queensland Electrical Trades Union secretary Peter Ong, who moved a motion at the Queensland Labor conference on November 30 calling for an end to the union’s administration. The AWU and its supporters walked out and the meeting supported Ong’s motion.
However, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and many powerful Victorian unions have, disgracefully, remained silent while a union of 120,000 members, which led many campaigns against anti-union laws for more than 30 years, is destroyed.
While some may not like the CFMEU’s tactical approach to defending working class rights, unionists everywhere will be the losers from Labor’s attack in a cost of living and housing crisis, where the bosses are reaping billions in profits.
If you don’t fight, you lose! Touch one, touch all!