BY NIKKI ULASOWSKI
PERTH I've been knocked off by the Tories, I've been knocked off by stinking grubby builders, I've been knocked off by the [building industry] task force, but it was a bit hard to cop getting knocked off by the Labor Party, Joe McDonald, assistant secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (WA) told Green Left Weekly.
He was referring to charges recently brought against him by the state ALP government, which has accused him of breaking freedom of association provisions of the Industrial Relations Act. These provisions, introduced by the previous Coalition, anti-union, government, are designed to limit union's ability to recruit members.
McDonald said the charges relating to alleged use of standover tactics to sign up workers on a demolition site had been announced in parliament by ALP industrial relations minister John Kobelke without any prior notification to the CFMEU. After being fined $1000 by the Industrial Magistrates Court, McDonald announced his resignation from the party. He said that he was now Premier Geoff Gallop's worst nightmare. Quoted in the West Australian, McDonald said: It's just another act of treachery from Gallop, Kobelke and the whole bloody lot of them. As of today, I'm finished with the Labor Party and I've resigned.
He told GLW: The only hope for the worker is through collective muscle through the union. They are not going to get anything from the Labor Party. They are getting carved up everywhere.
From Green Left Weekly, October 16, 2002.
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