Victorian union leaders defend members
By Michael Bull and Sue Bolton
MELBOURNE — A Victorian branch meeting of the construction division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union on September 5 unanimously endorsed a state management committee motion to defend any CFMEU member or organiser charged as a result of events at the rally in Canberra on August 19.
The motion extends to interstate as well as Victorian branch members.
During discussion of the motion, many of the 80 members in attendance voiced anger at the federal leadership's decision to sack any CFMEU official charged by police, and its refusal to defend any member charged.
Branch secretary Martin Kingham condemned the ACTU for informing on union members to the police and for its stance on the demonstration as a whole. Kingham stated that the attacks by the Howard government were the main reason for the anger shown by Aborigines, students and workers.
Union members were also angry at the CFMEU leadership for breaking ranks by publicly condemning the union's members involved in the so-called riot on the steps of Parliament House.
Anger at the national union leadership's response is widespread. "The union movement doesn't need to pacify John Howard or the Labor Party by having a witch-hunt of union members", the state secretary of the Electrical Trades Union (Victoria), Dean Mighell, told Green Left Weekly. "It has "responded with a knee-jerk reaction to the media reports of the demonstration ... but we should look back at what happened on the Friday before. Police with batons and horses attacked the workers at the ACI-Spotswood picket line.
"Workers were shown by the police that it's 'all right' to use violence to resolve an industrial issue. The media say that sort of [police] violence is OK but what happened in Canberra is not."