Socialist Party Australia - A guide to this years attack on Australia's strongest union

This year will see a huge attack by the Federal Government on Australia’s strongest union, the construction division of the CFMEU.
All workers should make it their business to understand the issues and get behind this pace-setting union. Here is a guide to the key points...

What is the CFMEU?
It is a mini-federation of several unions. In the 1990s the national trade union body, the ACTU, forced many unions together into so-called ‘super unions’, the CFMEU being one. The C represents the construction workers union and includes divisions covering furniture and other trades.

The F is the forestry workers’ union. The ME is the miners’ and energy workers’ union.

The Howard Government’s Royal Commission is solely aimed at the C, the construction workers’ union. Although if successful, these attacks will spread to all unions.

Why has the Government decided to pick on the construction union?
The CFMEU (construction) is the strongest union in Australia, organising workers in commercial construction. (The union has only a weak presence in the housing sector).

On the majority of sites in Victoria and WA and even in weaker areas for this union, there is an active union presence in the form of a union delegate (shop steward) who often works fulltime in that role. There is also often a Occupation Health and Safety (OHS) representative. The union has onsite offices, phones, faxes etc. This allows the workers in this industry, via their elected representatives, to force their employers to comply to the safety laws, Award provisions and the Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA) that they would otherwise ignore.

If companies try to work without an EBA with the CFMEU, or have not paid their superannuation and redundancy scheme entitlements to their employees, the onsite union rep will instruct the workers to ‘shed up’, that is to sit in the lunch rooms on site and refuse to work until the boss does the right thing.

The onsite OHS rep will do the same thing if an employer is grossly negligent on a health and safety issue.

On top of their well-organised presence on site, their strong delegate structure and rank and file involvement, the CFMEU has taken a principled stance on a range of broader issues such as globalisation, the environment and refugees. All of this is anathema to the Howard Government. The employers are too weak and divided themselves to defeat the CFMEU so they have in effect sub-contracted the job of defeating the union to the Federal Government.

How did the CFMEU get to be so strong?
The nature of the industry gives more power than usual to workers. Bosses bid amongst each other to win contracts and subcontracts to build all or part of buildings, stadiums etc. They work to a tight deadline and the withdrawal of labour not only stops the job but also leaves the builders open to financial penalties from the client.

The other reason is that the Communist Parties (both the main CPA and the Maoist CPA-ML) traditionally had a strong positions in building unions. The presence of Marxist-trained workers had a huge effect in the militant tradition and successes of the building unions. The CPA’s Jack Munday and the CPA-ML’s Norm Gallagher are two examples, and they were strongly backed by large numbers of politically-trained rank and filers, delegates and organisers. The difference (and challenge) today is that the left leaders do not have a strong political organisation underneath them and the industrial militancy of the ranks is not always matched by political militancy.

Why did Howard attack now?
There was a level of opportunism in the decision. Two years ago the National Secretary of the construction division of the CFMEU, John Sutton, gave an eight hour interview to the ABC-TV’s Four Corners programme attacking his political opponents in the union and accusing them of corruption. Sutton agreed to the interview to get himself a national media platform to attack his many opponents inside the union. There had been a wave of criticism of his non-leadership in the campaign for a 36 hour week and his inaction over allegations of corruption and inept leadership in the NSW branch, controlled by his factional mate, Andrew Ferguson. Outrageously, Sutton used the Four Corners interview to call for a National Crime Authority inquiry into his union, an invitation the Howard government was pleased to accept and soon after set up its bodgy Royal Commission.

Sutton will never be forgiven for his on-air interview which directly led to the Royal Commission, costing taxpayers $66 million and leading to charges against union members and officials as well as a soon-to-be-announced Taskforce of ex-police officers to try to terrorise building workers.

What were the recommendations of the Royal Commission?
The Task Force made a large number of anti-union recommendations that have been accepted by the Federal Government and incorporated into a draft bill, the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Bill 2003.

The bill seeks to proscribe Pattern Bargaining, whereby unions present common Enterprise Bargaining Agreements to every employer in an industry. It wants to ban payment of wages to workers who undertake industrial action to resolve health and safety concerns. It wants to undermine the relatively good industry superannuation scheme, CBUS, by making it easier for bosses to offer alternative (and second rate) super schemes to workers.

It bans EBAs from encouraging union membership. It makes it much more difficult for unions to undertake industrial action and increases fines for ‘illegal action’ to $110,000 for unions and $22,000 for individual workers. It weakens the rights of union organisers to enter building sites.

The Bill establishes a new Task Force (Australian Building and Construction Commissioner) to be staffed by officers with police powers to enforce the new laws.

When will the proposed Bill become law?
At the moment the Senate has established a Senate Committee to review the proposals. In the first few months of this year the Committee will travel around Australia seeking input from the public. It will be voted on around April. The Greens and ALP will vote against it in the Senate. If the Democrats vote with the Coalition (as seems likely) it will become law.

What can workers do to support the CFMEU?
Invite a CFMEU speaker into your workplace, union meeting, school or university or Tafe college or community organisation to hear the real story. Come to the CFMEU rallies in opposition to the Bill. Encourage your union or student organisation to pledge to actively support the CFMEU if it is attacked. An injury to one is an injury to all!