Spanners in Beattie's dirty works
BY ANDREW PHILLIPS
BRISBANE Workers at QBuild, the state government agency responsible for building all Queensland government buildings, schools and offices, are fighting for justice after being locked out on May 21.
The workers' attempts to negotiate a new enterprise bargaining agreement have been stymied by management since the process began in November. QBuild used the tactic of holding off talks with the union, the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), so as to minimise the period during which workers could take legal industrial action.
Only after the CEPU threatened to take action did talks start. But when workers implemented paperwork bans, QBuild management locked them out of their vans and tried to relocate them to other work sites. This action by QBuild was deemed illegal by the industrial relations commission.
State industrial relations minister Gordon Nuttall then made an offer, which was rejected by the workers. The inadequacy of Nuttall's proposals undermined workers' confidence in the government and the union picketed the ALP state conference in early June.
Rather than addressing the workers' demand for a 5% pay rise, the government has focussed on superannuation.
There have been 400-strong mass meetings, Brett Machin, a CEPU state organiser, told Green Left Weekly. Motions passed unanimously by the union's state conference on May 25-26 condemned QBuild for its lockout, supported direct in-good-faith negotiations between the government and QBuild workers, and called for a 36.25-hour week for all crown employees.
ALP Premier Peter Beattie was subsequently quoted in the June 2 Sunday Mail as saying: You will not get it. If we were to do that it would send us broke.
Machin said: You wouldn't expect a state Labor Party [branch] to be locking its members out like the government of [former premier] Joh Bjelke-Petersen or a multinational like Rio Tinto.
Arguing that the union would fight the government politically, Machin stated: Beattie has treated the workers with contempt. Workers are getting more disillusioned with the ALP and they are thinking about their fees.
From Green Left Weekly, July 3, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly
home page.