Hundreds of building workers took their demand for the secretive Australian Building and Construction Commission to be abolished to its headquarters on St Kilda Road on June 26. The protest was timed to coincide with the compulsory hearing of four crane workers, all members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
Hundreds of building workers took their demand for the secretive Australian Building and Construction Commission to be abolished to its headquarters on St Kilda Road on June 26. The protest was timed to coincide with the compulsory hearing of four crane workers, all members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
Todd Duggan, Robert Aiello, Grant Hyne and Bruce Scott have been ordered to produce information for the commission regarding an alleged unlawful stoppage at their work site.
Under the draconian Howard-era laws, workers who remain silent, or refuse to attend the ABCC's interrogation, can be jailed for up to six months. The four crane workers had been involved in a minor dispute with the company over sub-standard amenities at a construction site in Seaford.
"It is ridiculous to be persecuted for doing our job. We are being dragged [to the ABCC] and questioned because we did what the employer told us to do — to come into the yard until the dispute was sorted", Duggan told Green Left Weekly. "It's time to get rid of the ABCC."
Addressing the workers, CFMEU national secretary Dave Noonan related how two construction workers were recently killed at a Gold Coast building site because of poor safety standards and regulations, but their deaths were not the subject of an inquiry into workplace health and safety. By contrast, more than 90 construction workers have been dragged before the ABCC.
"The faceless ABCC bureaucrats, appointed by the Howard government don't care. We will fight until the end of these anti-worker laws", he said to rousing applause, adding that it was "disappointing" that some in the new Labor government seem to support the ABCC.
The ABCC was set up in 2005 supposedly to "clean up" the building industry. However, its main function has been to act as an all-powerful secret police force against building unions.
The ABCC is supported by the Master Builders Association, which has initiated a "save the ABCC campaign" website. The MBA is urging the Rudd government to retain the watchdog with full powers beyond 2010, arguing that the ABCC has delivered a "golden era" to the construction industry.
The protest ended noisily with the four crane drivers being carried on the shoulders of unionists through a guard of honour into the building.