The following is abridged from an open letter from the construction workers building the city end of the Perth to Mandurah rail link.
You have every right to know the reasons why we stopped work [on February 24] on the Metrorail project and why each of us is willing to risk $22,000 in Howard government fines.
We have endured months of Leighton Kumagai's (LKJV) broken agreements, heavy-handed tactics and threats, and demands that we work under unacceptable conditions.
We made a difficult but unanimous decision to cease work when we learned that LKJV had fired our elected representative, Peter Ballard. We were in the middle of trying to fix another of the endless disputes that LKJV have thrown at us, this time over changes to the long-standing procedure for stopping work when our health and safety is endangered.
Our union [the CFMEU] took the matter to the industrial relations commission. Before the commission even had a chance to deal with the matter, LKJV fired Peter because he would not sign an unconditional undertaking that he would follow LKJV's new procedure.
Our union has been trying to resolve many other long-standing problems with LKJV. These include LKJV-imposed changes to when we take our accrued rostered days off, and demands that many of us work overtime whenever the company decides.
LKJV demanded that three conditions be met for Peter's reinstatement, a bitter pill that we could not swallow:
- that Peter sign its unconditional undertaking;
- that every one of us, and our union on our behalf, unconditionally accept LKJV's change to our calendar of accrued rostered days off and withdraw our application to resolve the dispute; and
- that we drop our insistence that the company consult with us whenever LKJV demands that we work more than 56 hours per week.
Like you, all we want is to put in our hard day's work, perform our jobs well and still have time left over to spend with our families. We've found this almost impossible on LKJV's part of the Metrorail project. Here's a small sample of the mountain of issues that LKJV has forced us to climb.
When the project started almost two years ago, we knew that the work would be difficult and dangerous, and that LKJV would be under pressure to complete the work on time and budget. We agreed that we would work up to 56-hour weeks and the company agreed that they would consult us if they wanted us to do more.
Ever since LKJV has fallen behind schedule — and especially after the Howard government passed new building industry and industrial relations laws — LKJV has demanded that more of us work unreasonable hours without consultation. Some of us have been forced to work 84-hour weeks and sometimes for 13 days in a row.
For many of us, it no longer matters how much overtime money we get. We always have to leave the house before the kids get up and they're asleep by the time we get home.
As LKJV falls further behind, our health and safety has been compromised. When our safety representatives have tried to get LKJV to fix safety hazards, they were issued warnings and threatened with the sack.
LKJV has also tried to use the Howard government's new laws to prevent our union representatives from entering the project to resolve our issues before they blow up into serious disputes. Our site representative, Peter Ballard, has often been our first and last line of defence and protection on the work site.
Above all else, every construction worker wants to get home safe and in one piece. After failing to get LKJV and Worksafe to adequately address our growing safety concerns, a site-wide safety audit in late December revealed almost 80 alleged safety hazards or breaches of the WA Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Many were serious. Inadequate edge protection to prevent falls from heights. Exposed electrical connections. Standing water and debris in emergency exits and access ways. Empty fire extinguishers. Broken cages for lifting heavy equipment and debris overhead.
Do you think this looks like a safe and well-managed work site?
From Green Left Weekly, March 15, 2006.
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