Unions did not just come out of the blue.
I became a union member at the age of 16 years in 1967. I am deeply concerned about workers only democratic organizations, unions. Labor governments, both state and federal, have introduced a new way of attacking workers. The government has placed the CFMEU into administration, sacking all the elected officials and keeping the administration staff on the payroll. The government appointed boss of that union, Mark Irving, is a barrister from Melbourne. He has no qualifications for the job. During my lifetime, union organisers in the construction industry have all come from the building trades.
In one fell swoop, the federal Labour government has taken away members democratic rights. The right of members to elect their leaders, their delegates on the job, union officials, and indirectly the organizers are lost, possibly for years and maybe forever. I am not saying that democracy in the union was perfect. All I am saying is democracy in the union is now non-existent.
To this day, the Labor Party rejects the dismissal of the Whitlam Government by the government general. Now, in government, they have done the same thing to one of the strongest unions in the country.
There is a lack of transparency in the union administered by Mark Irving. Who has he kept on the payroll, and who has he sacked? Does this mean that he has the right to hire and fire anyone who works for the union? What has happened to the delegate structure in the union? Has the administrator stopped rank and file members from electing their delegates on the job?
We were told at the rally yesterday (17 October 2024) in Brisbane that the administrator has the right to sell property, assets built up over generations of contributions by union members.
I have tried to watch both the 60 Minutes program and the ABC Four Corners about alleged corruption in the union and links with organised crime. All I get is a rehashing of Underbelly, a fictionalized account of Melbourne gangland wars from 1995 to 2004. There is very little evidence of union corruption especially in Queensland where no allegations have been made against union officials. I am not saying none exists, but allegations of criminality should be tested in the courts and the Fair Work Commission not in the corporate media.
The most honest union officials during my time as a unionist were the communists. Members voted them into office because of their honesty, more so than because workers followed their ideology.
In my day in Brisbane, the Building Workers Industrial Union BWIU officials were practically all communists: Uncle Bob Anderson, Hughie Hamilton, Jack Sherrington, and a number of others. What is more Union membership flourished under communist leadership as is shown in the graph below.
Union Response
Now there is the building unions campaign in response to these attacks. The strategy outlined by Michael Ravbar was:
- Use social media to organise;
- Disaffiliate from the Queensland Council of unions QCU and Australian Council of trade unions ACTU;
- Vote Labor out at upcoming state and federal elections;
- Challenge the appointment of the administrator in the High Court as being unconstitutional.
I can’t see any of these actions, taken alone, as being particularly effective and only hope that there is good organisation at the workplace level. It is after all the bosses that are calling for the government to step in and reduce the power of the CFMEU and other building unions.
Misogyny
Here is what the ETU representative had to say at the rally yesterday about the accusation that the union is misogynist.
In 1948 Chifley Labor government declared war on the miners. The workers were forced back to work by starvation and impoverishment. It took the Labor Party 40 years to recover from that attack on workers. Hawke and Keating took office in 1983. The Whitlam Labor government was sacked by the Governor General in 1972.
I just can’t see a way back for the Labor Party. In Queensland it is unlikely that the Labor government will be returned. The Liberal National Party opposition is pitching their hopes on a negative campaign. David Crisafulli, the leader of the LNP claims that crime is out of control without giving any evidence for it, that ambulance ramping is that record highs, that housing shortages are driving up rents and the cost of living is increasing faster than the rest of Australia. Certainly housing is a major issue, but the LNP solution is to take pressure off rents by working with local councils to approve more homes and to build better communities and abolishing stamp duty for the first home buyers purchasing a new house.
The LNP have no plan to deal with underlying systemic problems that cause high interest rates, profiteering, corporate greed and loss of public services.
Ian Curr
18 September 2024.