Sam Wainwright

  • MUA forces Adsteam back down

    PERTH — The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has won a dispute with Adsteam Marine at a gas pipe-laying project off the north-west coast of Western Australia. The workers walked off the job because of serious safety concerns.

  • US seeks to increase naval visits

    PERTH — On July 30, 70 people crowded into the Fremantle Hotel for a quiz night fundraiser organised by the Fremantle Anti-Nuclear Group (FANG). FANG is committed to stopping the Seaswap program, under which US Navy vessels

  • Class-struggle unions: we can beat Howard

    PERTH — In the June Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) election, two of the three positions in the Western Australian branch were won by the Rank and File ticket, which called for a return to democratic and militant unionism.

  • 'Illegals' and Australian unionism

    On September 9, five suspected illegal-immigrant workers at the De Lorenzo ceramics factory in Sydney's west were detained following a raid by immigration department officials. The NSW branch of the construction & general division

  • Commission attacks NSW CFMEU

    SYDNEY — The Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry, although based in Melbourne, has also been holding sessions in other cities, including Sydney. The most recent Sydney session finished on August

  • 'No justice on the seventh floor!'

    SYDNEY — On August 28, 5000 workers, chanting "Stop the bias, stop the lies, hands off the union!", marched down George Street before rallying outside the Family Court in Goulburn Street. High above the spirited rally, on the

  • Civilising the building industry

    BY SUE BOLTON & SAM WAINWRIGHT On July 24, the day after the Australian Industrial Relations Commission rejected the Australian Council of Trade Unions' petition to compensate workers for excessive overtime, Construction, Forestry, Mining and

  • Royal commission ignores employers' abuses

    SYDNEY — “The proceedings have been more like a prosecution of the union than a genuine investigation of the building industry” — This was how Andrew Ferguson, secretary of the NSW Construction, Forestry, Mining and

  • Workers locked out

    SYDNEY — Seventy-five workers employed by Nonferral Pty Ltd in Wetherill Park have been locked out for two weeks after refusing to work in unsafe conditions. The workers were concerned about the dangers of transporting molten

  • Royal commission attacks workers

    BY NICK EVERETT & SAM WAINWRIGHT SYDNEY — Since the Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry began sitting in Sydney in early June, lurid employer claims of Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU)

  • Dayson workers hold out for union rights

    SYDNEY — Twelve workers from the Dayson compressor manufacturing plant at Rydalmere have been on strike for more than four weeks. The strike began when seven workers, including two union delegates, were sacked without notice on

  • Carr and union leaders roll bus drivers

    SYDNEY — "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again" — this could be the motto of the leaders of the Bus and Tram division of the NSW Rail Tram and Bus Union. On May 20 they finally got the majority of Sydney and