SYDNEY — A major union-busting attack on the national construction workers union is underway here, with Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt announcing Aug. 9 he plans to rush through a threatened new law to impose government “administration” on the union.
The Australian Labor Party government had earlier instructed the Fair Work Commission to seek a court order placing the union’s national executive and almost all its state branches under its administrator’s control. It justified the move by pointing to a series of sensationalized news features starting in July that charged criminal links, intimidation and bribe-taking by some officers of the union. The government gave the union a week to agree to a court-ordered takeover or face legislation.
The commission is giving its administrator the power to remove some 270 officers of the union, seize all union property and take over the financial accounts of the union. The commission’s appointee would run the union for two years, or more.
Union under attack for years
The construction workers union, a division of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union, has been targeted by successive federal governments for over 20 years, including being hit with some 19 million Australian dollars ($12 million) in fines since 2016. There are several ongoing police investigations against union officials.
The CFMEU construction division has a strong presence on major building and infrastructure projects around the country.
In a letter to union members July 24, Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union National Secretary Zach Smith said, “Some of these allegations have been misleading and false.” But “some are deeply worrying and warrant investigation.” The union’s national office took over the Victoria branch of the union July 15, standing down 15 delegates and launching its own inquiry.
“I take criminality seriously,” Smith said, adding he would “also never ever apologize for the important work this union does.”
In a July 15 statement he declared, “Our union operates in a tough industry where people are injured or killed every week and where shonky developers and contractors are often allowed to run rampant.”
In 2022, 27 workers were killed and 15,600 injured in construction workplace accidents. The union helped lead a successful campaign to ban the use of engineered stone after thousands of workers developed lung disease caused by silica dust.
Earlier this year the union’s branches in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales won new statewide contracts improving work conditions and pay raises of more than 20% over four years.
Media allegations include claims — many based on covert surveillance — that “criminals” have “infiltrated” the union. They say union organizers in Melbourne threatened to beat up the owners of a small labor hire company, and branch officials in Victoria and New South Wales accepted kickbacks and bribes.
Responding to these allegations, Smith told union members, “When you hear politicians or the business lobby say that the CFMEU causes costs in construction to be too high, be very clear about what they’re saying: They think you should be earning less money.”
After the government announced plans to intervene against the union, leaders of the Australian Council of Trade Unions suspended the construction union from the national union federation. And the Australian Labor Party, along with its state branches in Victoria and New South Wales, suspended the CFMEU from the party.
The Fair Work Commission cynically claimed its proposed takeover is “to ensure the CFMEU can be representative of and accountable to its members, operate lawfully and effectively and encourage member participation and democratic functioning.”
But this intervention into the union has nothing to do with concern about corruption in unions or the well-being of rank-and-file construction workers, neither do the police investigations and anti-union campaign in the capitalist news media. The government’s aim is to weaken the unions on behalf of the bosses, to tie up any pro-union activity in further regulations and red tape, and to dampen any fight to defend wages and conditions.
Any problems our unions have today can only be resolved by union members themselves, not the bosses’ government.
The way to strengthen the labor movement lies in a break with all the bosses’ parties. Through the class battles ahead we can build a party of labor to organize and mobilize working people, union and nonunion alike, to defend our common interests and fight to take political power into our own hands.
Robert Aiken is the Communist League in Australia candidate for mayor of Liverpool.