BY SUE BULL
GEELONG — As part of a series of regional report-backs about the outcomes of the royal commission into the building industry, union officials arrived in Geelong on April 15. Martin Kingham, state secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and Brian Boyd from the Victorian Trades Hall Council addressed 50 workers.
Kingham, who faces contempt of court charges from the commission headed by Terence Cole, outlined the sorry history of the Coalition government's latest attempt at union busting. But, as Kingham explained, the CFMEU has not been intimidated. "I reckon I'm the proudest man in Victoria", he said, "Because we've had such a team ... who haven't bowed to the pressure ... Our people are so good at advancing their conditions and giving solidarity to others."
According to Kingham, the government intends to tangle unions up with endless charges relating to petty breaches of the workplace relations act. He believed this could cost the union as much as $3 million. Consequently, a members' levy would continue to help cover these costs.
Brian Boyd explained that the royal commission was "a surgical instrument designed to get a result." He compared the US government's attitude towards Iraq and the war with the Coalition government's attitude towards building unions. "Just as the US has found nothing in Iraq nor did they find weapons of mass destruction in Martin Kingham's office — they found nothing."
Boyd outlined just how repressive the proposed changes to the workplace relations act were going to be. "If a union official is fined and these fines aren't paid within 14 days", he said, "then the union can be de-registered."
Boyd called on unionists to rally outside Kingham's trial on April 29 and then again for, as he said, "... what is fast becoming the 'traditional' May Day on May 1."
The meeting then discussed a number of ways that workers in Geelong could get the facts out about the attacks on building workers and the proposed changes to the workplace relations act. Geelong CFMEU organiser Brendan Murphy noted, "We must send a message to affiliates (of the Geelong and Regional Trades and Labour Council) that once militant unions are knocked off, they're next. Once you knock the head off a snake, then the carcass is going to die."
It was decided that the CFMEU and the Geelong TLC would co-ordinate a sub-committee to work out how to approach other unions, workplaces and community groups and build a solidarity campaign against the Coalition government attacks. The CFMEU said they would skill up stewards to talk to workers in all sorts of situations, even schools, to get the message across.
[GLW interviews with Martin Kingham and WA CFMEU secretary Kevin Reynolds are on pages 10-11.]
From Green Left Weekly, April 23, 2003.
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