CFMEU Victoria Worker Spring 2018

VOLUME 24.2 SPRING 2018

CONTENTS

Journal of the CFMEU Victorian and Tasmanian Branch, Construction & General Division

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Executive Secretary John Setka

Assistant Secretaries Shaun Reardon & Elias Spernovasilis

CFMEU Women Delegates

Senior Vice President Derek Christopher

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President Ralph Edwards

Vice President Robert Graauwmans

Licensing of Trades Legislation Introduced

Organisers and Field Officers Gerry Benstead . Nigel Davies . Steve Long Malcolm Smith . Billy Beattie . Gerry McCrudden .

Mick Myles . Mark Tait (Fozzie) . Theo Theodorou .

Mark Travers . Drew McDonald . Adam Hall Toby Thornton . Mark McMillan . Gerry McQuaid Brendan Pitt . Joe Myles . John Perkovic Peter Booth . Richie Hassett (TAS) . Kevin Harkins .

Fergal Doyle . Dean Dando . Lisa Zanatta .

Kane Pearson . Adam Olsen . James Simpson Nick Vamvas . John Thomson . Paul Tzimas .

Mick Myles . Gerry McCrudden

Specialist Staff Wage Claims Officer Frank Akbari Training Unit Coordinator Anne Duggan Teachers and Trainers Karen Odermatt . Mark Devereaux . Jacky Gamble Barry Kearney . Jennifer Pignataro . Rose Nechwatel Paul Allwood . Owen Waiomio . Craig Lynch Sue Bull . Lorella DiPietro . Dorothy Saristavros Tony Minchin . Andy Duff . Dan Phelan Robert Rowan

Communications Officers Jon Stanger, David Pavlich

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Friends Reflect on a Young Life Cut Short

COVER

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Executive Columns

Political Campaigns & Research Officer Angelica Nippard

Industrial/Legal Officers Amanda Swayn . Jean Maloney . Kristen Reid India Shearer Boyd . David Vroland . Paris Dean

Portland South West TLC, 31 Percy St, Portland 3305 T: (03) 5523 4272 / F: (03) 5523 3358 Hobart 33A New Town Rd, New Town 7008 T: (03) 6228 9595 / F: (03) 6228 9594

vic.cfmeu.org.au Authorised by John Setka, Secretary CFMEU Victoria.

CFMEU Worker is proudly designed by union members.

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‘Super’ Mavis Robertson

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Human Cost: In Qatar

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Michele O’Neil: New ACTU President

Your Voices for Parliament

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Offices

Wodonga Shop 3-4, 22 Stanley St, Wodonga 3690 T: (02) 6024 1099 / F: (02) 6056 5565

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Apprentice Liaison Officer Liam O’Hearn

Bendigo Bendigo TLC, 40 View St, Bendigo 3550 T: (03) 5443 5173 / F: (03) 5442 5961

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Violence - The Facts, The Solutions

WorkCover Legal Officer Neil Browne

Geelong 78 Fyans St, Geelong Sth 3220 T: (03) 5229 8921 / F: (03) 5223 1845

Gordon Legal

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Safety Officers Alex Tadic . Peter Clark , Steve Roach

Morwell Wing 5, Lignite Court, Morwell 3840 T: (03) 5134 3311 / F: (03) 5133 7058

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Union Sites are Safer

Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety Unit Manager Gerry Ayers

Melbourne 540 Elizabeth St, Melbourne 3000 T: (03) 9341 3444 / F: (03) 9341 3427

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The Stolen Generations

The Failed Conspiracy to Bring Down CFMEU Leaders.

Page: 8-13

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The Union Difference: Trained and Qualified

An Assault on Democracy

150,000 Strong Rally Photos

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68

Stop the Rot

Behind the Scenes

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70

ABCC Standover Tactics

Living Heritage Project

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Freedom to Fight

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Amaze

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44-47

Onsite Photos

Hooked and Cooked

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Your Wages CFMEU WORKER

FROM THE SECRETARY

892 DAYS

FROM ARREST TO AQUITTAL JOHN SETKA BRANCH SECRETARY

Day one was Sunday 6th December 2015. After being at Victoria Market with my wife and two youngest children, I was on my way home driving through North Melbourne. What I didn’t know was that me and my family had been followed for about two hours by undercover police as we strolled through Victoria Market.

My family was followed by two unmarked police cars with officers of Victorian and Federal Police attached to the Heracles Taskforce. I was pulled over and arrested in a side street of North Melbourne in front of my family. My children were crying and distraught – it was many days later, somewhere in the 892, that we found out one of our children was suffering posttraumatic stress.

Day one for Shaun Reardon was the same, arrested at his home in front of his family.

We were both charged with blackmail, and that was the start of an 892 day journey for us and our families.

CHARGES DROPPED

It came out in our court case, as the charges were dismissed on day 892, that it was a politically motivated witch-hunt.

SPRING 2018

A conspiracy was revealed, with the involvement of the ACCC, the Freehills law firm, the Dyson Heydon anti-union Royal Commission (TURC), the Victorian Napthine Liberal Government, Tony Abbott’s office and senior federal Liberal Party members.

In just one aspect of the conspiracy, the two Boral managers together with Freehills had made drafts of their statements before they got it right. One of them made 18 draft statements and the other one took 41 drafts. That probably should’ve been notified to the Guinness Book of Records! What that meant is they kept changing their statements until they were good enough for charges. They were still wrong.

In a dramatic turn during the committal hearing, the Director of Public Prosecutions, after seeing how bad the case was, decided to drop the charges.

REMEMBER THE STATISTICS SHOW ONLY 5% OF CASES ARE WON AT THE COMMITTAL STAGE, WHICH GOES TO SHOW HOW BAD THEIR CASE WAS.

Our privacy was invaded.

Every phone conversation was recorded and we were able, at the Magistrates request, to obtain the affidavits that the Federal Police had made to get the phone intercepts. The evidence that they used was absolutely disgusting and false.

THE REAL CRIMINALS

Just think for a moment, when you hear what’s happening in the Banking Royal Commission: these companies have driven people to take their own lives, they’ve charged fees to dead people and the Commonwealth Bank has admitted to 1500 criminal charges.

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WE’VE SEEN PRIESTS THAT HAVE RUINED PEOPLES LIVES WITH CHILD ABUSE, OR COVERED UP THE ABUSE OF CHILDREN. NONE OF THEM WERE ARRESTED IN THE WAY THAT ME AND SHAUN WERE. Judges have little to say about the big banks level of criminality – 1500 charges for CBA, money laundering, allowing funding for terrorists, charging fees for no services. There’s no strong comments against companies like Grocon who took three innocent lives or about priests covering up child abuse. They have plenty to say about the CFMEU though – as we do our jobs preserving life.

Justice Tracey, a well known union-hater who was lead prosecutor for the anti-union Cole Royal Commission, has plenty to say about the CFMEU. Well when people like that criticise us we take it as a compliment.

Thank God he’s now retired, good riddance. My mum said the more you touch shit the more it stinks.

ACCC/ABCC

We now have the ACCC working hand-in-hand with the ABCC on the anti-union agenda of their political masters in the Liberal Party. ABCC inspectors have moved over to the ACCC, a group that is supposed to represent consumers – that’s us!

They don’t do anything about petrol prices going up 20c for the long weekend, they think unions are the problem. Their attacks show they’re just another political attack dog.

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Our 1st priority is our members and we’ll keep fighting for you no matter what.

MEMBER SURVEY

On a lighter note, you’ll find in this magazine a Members Survey.

We are gearing up for another EBA and it’s important you have your say.

that we are because of you, our members.

Obviously I’m hoping for a Richmond win in the finals again this year, but good luck to your team. Please stay safe, don’t drink and drive, and I look forward to hearing from you in the Members Survey.

YOU PAY OUR WAGES AND IT’S YOUR FUTURE – PLEASE FILL OUT THE SURVEY AND SEND IT BACK IN THE POSTAGEPAID ENVELOPE. The Members Survey is completely confidential, it can’t be traced back to you, so please make sure you fill it out and send it in. It’s your chance to tell us what you think and guide the next EBA. STICKERS

I hope you enjoy the stickers here in the magazine – wear them on Fighting for justice in court, unless your hat and on your car with it’s a jury, rarely gets us justice. pride. We are the strong union 4

CFMEU WORKER

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Featuring: • 2019 RDO CALENDAR • LATEST WAGES INFORMATION • EDUCATION AND TRAINING COURSE LIST

DOWNLOAD LINKS: VIC.CFMEU.ORG.AU/APP

FROM THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY

MEMBERS WIN, POLITICS MATTERS SHAUN REARDON ASSISTANT SECRETARY

In the last edition of the journal, Anne Duggan wrote about our push for the Andrews Labor government to license trades in Victoria and Luke Hilakari (VTHC Secretary) wrote about the need for Industrial Manslaughter laws.

I am proud to tell you that a reelected State Labor government under Daniel Andrews will introduce Industrial Manslaughter into law. This is a massive win for you and your union, and we should all be proud of the significant amount of work that has gone into this campaign and securing this commitment from Dan Andrews. This is a massive step towards getting this issue backed in by law and we are almost there – now we just need to get Labor re-elected, with your help.

We won’t rest until we get Industrial Manslaughter into law, which is why the CFMEU will be campaigning hard on our members’ issues in the lead up to the November state election.

LICENSING OUR TRADES

For decades, plumbers and sparkies have had their trades registered and licensed, while many trades such as carpentry, plastering, painting, tiling, glazing, stonemasonry and 6

bricklaying have remained unlicensed and unregulated.

While any person can get the bare minimum safety cards, slap on a tool belt, walk onsite and call themselves a carpenter, all plumbers and electricians must have proper certificates to demonstrate their training and experience. Chippies can be responsible for the formwork that will hold up tonnes of concrete slabs and don’t have to be formally qualified, yet the person laying the cables and pipes on the exact same site does. It just doesn’t add up and ultimately lets down our members in the industry and jeopardises safety.

To give an update on this issue, I am proud to tell members that we have successfully lobbied the Andrews Labor government to legislate for the licensing of these trades, with the Bill currently being debated in parliament.

This is an issue the union has been fighting for a long time, to secure our industry and maintain the dignity of our work going into the future. We’ll keep fighting until we win and get this into law!

LOCAL JOBS FIRST

Another upcoming Bill of interest to our members, which will be

introduced to parliament for debate by the State Government is the Victorian Local Jobs First Bill. This Bill is all about procurement on major government jobs, mandating local content requirements for things such as PPE, steel and materials, as well as apprentices.

I met with the Minister, along with Jenny Kruschel (replacing Michele O’Neil for the TCFUA), to make clear some of our union’s views on these matters.

If this state Labor government would like to get real about local procurement and delivering genuine and meaningful apprenticeships for the construction industry, then we demand a seat at that decisionmaking table to speak up for our members’ interests.

With compliance issues already rife on several major government jobs, we are committed to working with the Minister and his office to make sure that this Bill doesn’t just give people warm fuzzy feelings. It needs to actually go a long way in securing compliance, safety and security for good local jobs going into the future. This Bill has great potential for our members and we want to make sure that full potential is met.

CFMEU WORKER

We have made clear the issues this union has faced with some major government projects such as the West Gate tunnel project.

Not even two months ago a worker was tragically killed onsite from a piling rig, and yet last week our officials found that seven more similar piling rigs had been erected and were being operated by 457 visa workers paid in Euros!

If this government wants to get fair dinkum, then we are always ready to talk.

SPRING 2018

This state Labor government has delivered 88 strategic projects, compared to just eight under the previous Liberal government, and our industry is experiencing a boom in infrastructure work.

If this legislation is done right, there is real potential to do some great things and to secure a good future for our kids and the construction industry.

The CFMEU will be keeping our finger on the pulse with this issue and make sure your interests are represented on Spring Street.

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B O R A L B A S TA R D S

P A U L D A LT O N

PETER HEAD

MIKE KANE

General Manager Boral

General Manager Boral

Boral CEO, paid over $6 million, key ABCC lobbyist. Wrote to Trade Union Royal Commission to suggest John Setka be referred to police for possible blackmail charges.

In court, Head described meeting with John Setka and Shaun Reardon: “It was calm, it was pleasant.”

Witness statements to Royal Commission that led to dropped charges were re-written 18 times in one case and 41 in the other.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) made a rare decision to abandon the prosecution of blackmail charges against CFMEU leaders John Setka and Shaun Reardon, before they had even finished calling evidence at the committal hearing.

Even those following the case closely were taken by surprise. So what happened?

In April 2013, the CFMEU was locked in a bitter dispute with Grocon over safety issues and, in particular, the need for independent health and safety representatives to be present on dangerous construction sites. Four people had been killed on Grocon sites and the safety campaign also targeted Boral, who were supplying Grocon with concrete.

It’s against that backdrop that Boral contacted the CFMEU and arranged a meeting with union secretary, John Setka, and assistant secretary, Shaun Reardon. That meeting took place on April 23, 2013.

More than a year later, Boral’s CEO Mike Kane, wrote to Dyson Heydon’s anti-union royal

SPRING 2018

commission (TURC) to “respectfully suggest” Setka be referred to the police for possible blackmail charges.

Kane also complained that he thought a Supreme Court case against the union had been too slow, and Heydon fawningly interjected to lead more evidence from him about it. “You’re making powerful points,” said Heydon, concluding: “If anyone within Boral does have ideas for the future regulation of institutions so as to avoid this happening in the future, we’d be interested in seeing that.”

Heydon dutifully recommended blackmail charges, and called for reform of Supreme Court processes to mitigate the delay that Boral had complained about.

In turn, the court established a new Employment and Industrial List, which hears anti-union cases and is headed by a judge who formerly represented Grocon in its case against the CFMEU’s safety protest.

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DYSON HEYDON

Trade Union Royal Commission – recommended failed charges against CFMEU leaders. Heydon strongly supported Boral evidence, saying “You’re making powerful points.”

Famously declared himself unbiased after being exposed as guest speaker for Liberal Party fundraiser.

Meanwhile, Boral sued the CFMEU, with Kane claiming that its blockade cost the company $28 million. The more gullible “journalists” — such as the Herald Sun’s Stephen Drill — printed this claim as fact.

Ironically, given Boral’s complaints about delays in the Supreme Court, it was ordered to pay part of the union’s costs after causing a six week delay by changing its case on the ninth day of the trial, after ten witnesses had already been heard. Despite being allowed to move the goal posts during the match, Boral settled for just $4 million in damages, a long way short of Kane’s fantasy.

Lawyers from TURC, Boral and ACCC had discussions that preceded re-drafting of Boral witness statements.

a report, including apparent confirmation by eyewitnesses, about a Taskforce Heracles police raid on the CFMEU Melbourne office — a raid that hadn’t and never did happen.

But in December 2015, two and a half years after the meeting in question occurred, Setka and Reardon were arrested in front of their families and charged with blackmail.

They weren’t accused of threatening violence.

They weren’t accused of seeking personal gain.

They were accused of organising a boycott of building industry employers over an industrial issue — the appointment of health and safety representatives.

But this was just one prong of Boral’s attack. It had also been working closely with the ACCC to have the union sued by the government for exactly the same blockade (despite the Boral settlement), whilst also continuing a media campaign for criminal charges against Setka and Reardon, based on the April 2013 meeting.

This was an unusual and significant attack, a purely industrial dispute was being treated as a criminal matter. In one of the many court hearings since then, Justice Weinberg (himself a former Commonwealth DPP) tried in vain to identify a precedent for blackmail charges in a criminal context:

The usual suspects in the press were (over-) excited by that prospect. On the 27th August 2015, the Herald Sun’s Stephen Drill published

“Perhaps they are a little experimental. An attempt to see how far the reach of the criminal law can go in this area.”

DENNIS NAPTHINE

Liberal Premier Victoria 2013-14, anti-worker Construction Code

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TURC: Tr a d e U n i o n Royal Commission

PETER RYAN

Napthine/Baillieu Government Minister for Police 2010-2013

CFMEU WORKER

ACCC

$1 million fine against CFMEU. Intervention of ACCC lawyers preceded re-drafting of Boral witness statements.

Leading industrial law professor Andrew Stewart observed: “As long as you are not beating someone up or damaging property, criminal law hasn’t really had much of a role to play at all. If these guys are found guilty, and if the evidence does not show they were doing this for personal gain, that they were acting in the course of an industrial campaign, it sets a massive precedent and it’s just hard for me to see where the stopping point is.”

Boral seemed unconcerned by its own potentially criminal behaviour under this new expansive approach - for example, by threatening to sack employees if they didn’t hold a vote to remove conditions from their lawfully negotiated EBA. For now, their unprecedented and legally dubious attack on the CFMEU was bearing fruit.

However, criminal law adheres to strict rules and procedures of evidence that are developed over centuries, not the whims of Heydon’s witch hunt nor the trials by media.

Even before the committal hearing, CFMEU lawyers had begun to pull together threads

BEN HINDMARSH

Chief of Staff to Peter Ryan, Minister for Police, Federal Director National Party.

“Public attention and pressure”

SPRING 2018

DANIEL GROLLO

Grocon, company guilty of charges relating to 3 deaths in Swanston St wall collapse.

that would see the case collapse. For instance, Taskforce Heracles had obtained warrants for phone intercepts on Setka and Reardon, but when affidavits for the warrants were released to the defence, concerns about the process were obvious.

When approving warrants, judges and AAT (Administrative Appeals Tribunal) members are required to consider the interference with privacy and the gravity of the offences being investigated.

The first affidavit made a single reference to litigation brought by Boral and made no reference to privacy.

The magistrate said a telephone intercept could reasonably be expected to capture conversations between Setka and Reardon and their lawyers and other parties as well as “sensitive and confidential information”.

“Those are all matters that should have been placed before the tribunal members having regard to privacy.”

The implication here is that the police might

EDDY GISONDA

Napthine Liberal Government advisor, Freehills lawyer. “supply briefing notes”

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ROBERT CLARK

Napthine/Baillieu Government Attorney General 2010-2014

have misled the AAT by omission, downplaying the fact they would be eavesdropping on privileged conversations between the accused and their lawyers.

This implication mirrors another earlier case where the TURC had a warrant in a blackmail charge against the ACT branch of the CFMEU thrown out due to a “failure to disclose fully the circumstances that were required to be disclosed”. The case subsequently collapsed.

On the morning of the first day of the hearing, the union was also given access to a raft of documents the ACCC had tried to keep secret. Magistrate Rozenscwajg said their affidavit was weak and the documents showed a “cooperative relationship” the defence had a right to explore.

The documents included emails between DLA Piper (lawyers for the ACCC) and Freehills (lawyers for Boral), and crucially, notebooks and draft versions of the Boral witnesses’ statements.

And when those witnesses took the stand, the wheels came off the prosecution case.

It became clear that no one pushing for the blackmail charges against Setka and Reardon had applied any serious scrutiny to the key witnesses they would rely on when the case reached court.

ERIC ABETZ

Lonely Tasmanian Liberal Senator, Abbott’s Minister for Unemployment. “public attention and pressure”

arranged the April 2013 meeting, and Peter Head, who had attended as a witness.

Their evidence painted a different story to the one constructed in TURC and promoted by the media: Peter Head told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court union leaders John Setka and Shaun Reardon spoke passionately about their concerns for the safety of workers at builder Grocon’s city sites during the meeting.

“It was calm, it was pleasant. There was no overt aggression but certainly passion for the cause,” he said.

Dalton was similarly unfazed when attending the meeting, and “repeatedly said he did not feel as though he had been threatened during the meeting, but later accepted he had been.”

He was so unconcerned by what had happened that he (perhaps criminally) destroyed his original notes of the meeting on the same day, after being told by Boral’s in-house lawyer they “did not contain any evidence” and were “irrelevant”.

In fairness, they might have been right, as Dalton “conceded his notes do not characterise his conversation with Mr Setka as being of a threatening nature.”

It’s hard not to wonder if a desire to bag the biggest union scalps in the country blinkered the judgment of those who sought to criminalise what the union movement always insisted was industrial conduct.

Other documentary evidence at the time suggests there was no perceived threat. Dalton’s notebook referred to briefing documents being sent to Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz — but those briefings don’t refer to any alleged blackmail, Boral’s claims were never challenged by Heydon and neither politician mentioned any such or his bumbling counsel assisting, but Magistrates’ allegation either.

Court was a different arena.

It was only later, when Boral was contemplating The two key witnesses were Paul Dalton, who 12

its approach to TURC, that the meeting was

CFMEU WORKER

MICHAELIA CASH

TONY ABBOTT

Anti-union law firm, now Herbert Smith Freehills, had Michaelia Cash as a lawyer 1999-2008. Minister for hiding behind whiteboards.

Failed Liberal PM, key backer of ABCC “briefing docs”

retrospectively deemed threatening. And when the ACCC failed in its bid to block draft witness statements being released, the defence team was given a window into Boral’s back-room operations in preparation for TURC. At TURC, the similarity between the men’s statements was taken as a virtue, Counsel assisting, Jeremy Stoljar, wrote “Their accounts are consistent. Thus they corroborate each other.” But he had not questioned whether the similarities came as a result of collusion rather than corroboration.

And he had not questioned to what extent their statements — prepared more than a year after the event — had been massaged, given that nearly 60 draft witness statements were prepared by Freehills: “The court heard one Boral executive witness statement was changed 18 times while the union said another was changed 41 times.”

A key phrase, “cut off the supply lines”, alleged to be uttered by the union officials was not in the executives’ original notes and was only included in statements a year later.

A detailed comparison of the statements at various stages of preparation also threw up curious similarities. For instance: “Mr Head maintained the recollections in his first draft were his own, made without reference to Mr Dalton’s notes.”

witness statements was of such concern that after the DPP formally dropped the charges, Magistrate Rozencwajg commented: “It highlights [that] how police take statements is far more conducive to getting the facts as witnesses see them.”

This just underscores that the blackmail case was never a real police prosecution — it was driven by Boral, anti-union lawyers, and the anti-union royal commission.

They failed. This time.

This is not the end of the matter. This was not the first attempt to bring a blackmail case against a union official making an industrial demand, and it won’t be the last. Professor Andrew Stewart warns: “Comments in the royal commission report and the initiation of this prosecution have now placed a very large question mark over the role of criminal law in relation to industrial action and union activities. Today’s decision has done nothing to resolve that.”

They won’t stop attacking workers who stand up for themselves. We need to join our unions, turf out anti-union governments, change the rules to put a fair industrial relations system beyond doubt, and stand in solidarity when one of our comrades is attacked.

TOUCH ONE, TOUCH ALL.

And yet: “His first draft contained several almost i dentical quotes to those noted in Mr Dalton’s final statement.”

The unorthodox process of drafting these SPRING 2018

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FROM THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY

NEW HEIGHTS FOR YOUNG ACTIVISTS

ELIAS SPERNOVASILAS ASSISTANT SECRETARY

I’m very pleased and proud to report that the CFMEU Victoria Young Activists are achieving above and beyond anything I’d hoped for when we started out with this program.

Once again Victoria leads the way, with a huge attendance of 90 people at our last Young Activists meeting, they are going from strength to strength.

In true union form, members who started out attending as rank and file members are now organisers for the CFMEU and are organising Young Activists themselves, without the executive needing to get involved. Which is good, because people were starting to question whether I still qualify for the age limit.

The list of members that have come through Young Activists and are now on as your delegates is huge: Alex Micevic, Skye Allan, Madison Tyrell, Dragan Delic, Adam Petko, Eden Hands, Luke Lorasso, Rhett Campbell, Adam Paul, Ronnie Buckley, Errol Hughes, Dave Foley, Mark Dryden, Frank Triantos, Cameron Jones, Terry MacNamara, Willie Niumata, Andrew Houston, Corey Loux and Nikola Dragovic.

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Young Activists now employed as organisers are Paul Tzimas, Gerry McQuaid, Gerry McCrudden, Adam Olsen and James Simpson.

Other states are following Victoria’s lead, setting up young activist groups across the country.

Union members across the CFMEU are the winners out of this – we have new delegates on jobs, new organisers in place across the industry, including the civil sector, and new energy across the union.

WORKSHOPPING, LEARNING

Each Young Activist meeting workshops issues facing our members and our industry. The idea is to learn from the past and discuss new ideas and approaches as times change.

Our last meeting workshopped the use of ARREOs to deal with unsafe sites where there’s no elected union OHS rep. We discussed how the system works, the powers that an ARREO has and the differences between that and the rights of elected health and safety reps on the jobs.

Young activists understand well how bad employers use bad laws to try and prevent union officials doing their job.

We showed the video footage taken by one of our younger civil organisers, clearly showing how bad employers will do anything to prevent a legal ARREO entry, even resort to physical assault and obstruction.

I’m told the video went viral on Facebook, good thing there’s young activists to explain this stuff to me.

We’ve previously looked at some of the big disputes of the past, the tactics used by the bosses, police and politicians to deny workers their rights – everything from surveillance to scabs.

At the last meeting, Young Activists put up a motion to support Team Taylor (see page 52 for more on Team Taylor) and bring money to donate to the next meeting. Just as young activists are learning the ways of the union, they’re already demonstrating the big hearts that we’re known for.

CFMEU WORKER

SPRING 2018

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It’s been going on for decades now, unions attacked using unequal laws that apply only to unions with the aim of criminalising workers joining together as a union.

Most recently we witnessed an attempt to set-up John Setka and Shaun Reardon on phony blackmail charges.

It was a failed attempt to shift a supposed breach of 45D&E Secondary Boycott laws from the industrial legal jurisdiction into the criminal jurisdiction.

Bosses and their political representatives attempting to destroy the labour movement is not new, but the current attacks actually have their Australian roots in 1977, with the introduction of 45D&E and the Industrial Relations Bureau by the Liberal Party.

SECONDARY BOYCOTT ROT Neoliberalism declared the end of the social contract which existed in many advanced capitalist countries for around the first 70 years of the 20th Century. In Australia, during the 1950s and 60s, the labour movement faced down and organised against anti-union laws for 13 years, culminating in a general strike to free Tramways Union Secretary Clarrie O’Shea from prison.

That set the movement up for a large number of campaign wins for close to a decade, including Land Rights for First Nations peoples, the embracing of multiculturalism, better health care, free education and a dialogue about making Australia an independent and self-determining nation.

When capitalism ran into strife across the world as colonial arrangements fell apart, a new ideology took hold: known as the New Right, Economic Rationalism, Free Market Economics or Neoliberalism. It put “The Market” and “Free Trade” ahead of everything, with a religious enthusiasm.

The 45D&E laws in Australia were one part of a massive restructure to the global capitalist economy which combined privatisation, casualisation, sham contracting, anti-union laws and the selling of jobs offshore with attacks on national sovereignty that governments told us was an attempt to ‘benefit us all’.

These Secondary Boycott laws created legal inequality between employers and unionists. Whilst unions could not show solidarity with each other by acting against all employers engaging in disputes, employers became free to stand with each other and boycott unions through hiring a secondary workforce, scabs.

Anti-union laws designed to make the rich richer were sold on the lie that the wealth would trickle down, what became known as Trickle Down Economics.

SOLD OUT The Fraser Government hummed along, but Hawke and Keating wrote the full symphony and conducted the whole orchestra. Attacking airline pilots, meatworkers and anyone not prepared to support the forced economic restructuring. In 1986 they Deregistered and Derecognised the Builders Labourers Federation, the BLF, one of the unions which under John Cummins’ leadership went on to help form the CFMEU.

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The BLF stood outside and against the neoliberal agenda. They opposed the Accords, which were meant to stabilise the rollout of the economic restructuring by maintaining incomes and prices (in the end there never was a Prices and Incomes Accord, just an Incomes Accord).

The neoliberal agenda looked like this: •

losing many of our public assets;

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the offshoring of entire industries;

•

an end to large scale apprenticeships training;

•

casualisation (on the lie that it would only ever involve casual replacements for relieving workers);

•

sham contracting (where people are actually workers but are forced to pretend they are independent businesses).

Perhaps the most damaging change of all involved the massive cultural shift from a largely egalitarian culture where you could still be seen for who you are, to a self-first, gutless culture where more and more you are judged on what you have.

BREAKING UNION POWER Before neoliberalism could be implemented, unions had to be broken through 45D&E. In their explanatory piece titled “ILO Principles Concerning the Right to Strike” Bernard Gernigon, Alberto Odero and Horacio Guido writing on behalf of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) stated: Body of principles on the right to strike: D. A blanket ban on sympathy strikes could lead to abuse. Workers should be able to enjoy the right to take such action when the initial strike they are supporting is itself lawful.

H. Restrictions on picketing should be confined to cases in which such action ceases to be peaceful, and picketing should not interfere with the freedom to work of non-strikers (Note the authors here are referring to those in the existing, internal workforce who choose to scab).

J. The hiring of workers to replace strikers seriously impairs the right to strike and is acceptable only in strikes in an essential service or in situations of acute national crisis.

The ILO makes it clear: the use of externally hired scabs is a restriction on the right to strike.

If we are to be equal before the law then either we have 45D&E and no employment of scabs, or we have no 45D&E, employers may use scabs and the real market is allowed to operate.

EQUALITY We must have equality for unions with employer organisations to be able to organise. To set the price and conditions of sale for our goods (our work). To be free to act equally against all competitors who have a financial interest in the suppression of our interests within the marketplace.

Employers are free to act against us under the law, up to and including the use of scabs. We must be free to negotiate with all employers who have a direct interest in a dispute. All disputes are ultimately about price and conditions of sale, whether that be goods or work.

It’s not just unjust to give one side rights and take them away from the other side, in this case it also hurts an economy where workers superannuation underpins the financial system.

The days of the private owner who manages and directs their workplace, creating their wealth from the work of others, have gone. Now massive multinational corporations dominate the economy using the investment by global superannuation funds to maintain their dominance.

Without unions, universal superannuation would not exist.

Yet unions are the only sellers in the market for whom there are special laws stipulating that people do not have to pay for our services; non-members and even scabs receive equal recompense with us for services which we negotiate the sale of, and they do not.

SPRING 2018

No other stakeholder in the market is governed by laws which deliberately set out to advantage their competitor (in the case of unions, non-unionists). Unions are regarded as corporations under the law, yet we do not have the same right to exclusively contract, as do other corporations. It is simply unfair that competitors of a corporation are able to benefit from the commercial efforts of that corporation.

CHANGE THE RULES John and Shaun sat in court not just in the ‘normal’ employer/Liberal Coalition use of 45D&E to declare solidarity illegal within the industrial relations system.

This was an attempt to turn them into criminals by redefining their commonplace activities which defend workers, as criminal blackmail.

John Setka said 45D&E: “means if a union or members are being oppressed you can't step in to help them out. I think it is a very bad law.

It was brought in by ultra conservative governments and should be repealed."

These sentiments are now being echoed across a number of unions and the ACTU. For disputes like the Esso/ Mobil dispute and other intractable disputes, let alone for the good of our country, the problem of 45D&E must be resolved.

The bosses will always resist change that shifts the economy towards democracy. To accept a democratic economy is to see owners, shareholders, investors and citizens in their true, relative numbers. Unions represent the democratic voice of people within the economy, and it is time unions and communities finally achieved an equal say within our country’s political economy.

This article is an edited version of a piece written by CFMEU member Dave Kerin for the Earthworker newsletter of June 2018.

17

FFRROOMM TTHHEE PPRREESSIIDDEENNTT

INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRESS? RALPH EDWARDS PRESIDENT

After nearly twelve moths going through all the processes required by the EBA, ‘site allowances’ have been set for the two infrastructure mega projects. With no help from the Victorian Government or its bureaucrats with real information about the scope of the projects and their real cost – not propaganda cost – the Industry Disputes Panel handed down determinations on 20th July 2018.

These determinations are the result of the argument and information provided by the Union, and the efforts of the Panel to inform themselves about the project.

Without help and despite spoiling tactics from major contractors, the client and their rail authorities, the outcome is:

METROTUNNEL: $9.20 PER HOUR

WESTGATE TUNNEL: $8.90 PER HOUR A good result and at last a way to go forward for sub-contractors and their employees. NO! Not at West Gate Tunnel Project! The John Holland/ CPB Joint Venture have opposed the process and surprise, surprise, their subbie Wagstaff Piling have lodged an appeal with the Fair Work Commission.

The Joint Venture have no employees so they are using a surrogate.

18

Metro Tunnel (CYP Joint Venture) have copped the decision and are getting on with a project agreement with all Unions, for people they wish to employ. So their subbies can get on with business and direct employees will get the same “site allowance” in due course.

Meantime, West Gate Tunnel project needs some certainty on ‘site allowance’. The Union will have to argue the appeal in Fair Work and wear the legal costs. But what will happen to subbie employees for the

months before Fair Work’s decision?

Good question, and no good answer at this point.

Be assured the Branch is not going to cop the de-stabilisation of our EBA at West Gate Tunnel. And I note that the West Gate Joint Venture - unlike Metro Tunnel - has also avoided discussing a ‘project agreement’ with all Unions.

So we face a serious struggle on that project and we will not avoid the fight!

VICTORIA’S BIG BUILD Andrews Government delivers jobs and infrastructure for Victoria

T

he Andrews Government has 88 Strategic Projects under way in Victoria worth around $60 billion, and more are on the way.

The former Government, Baillieu/ Napthine’s Liberals and Nationals, managed only 8 projects in four years. That included some projects that were started under the Brumby Labor Government, such as the new Bendigo Hospital.

There’s a choice facing Victorians in November and it’s a big choice for jobs and the future of our industry.

THE CHOICE: A Labor Government ‘getting it done’ by investing in infrastructure and jobs, or another Liberal Government that attacks workers rights and fails to build a thing.

LOCAL CONTENT, LOCAL JOBS Thanks to Labor’s Local Jobs First Policy, which mandates that minimum local content requirements are set on any project valued over $50 million, the Andrews Government has set minimum local content on all of these projects. This

SPRING 2018

has helped create tens of thousands of new jobs.

This figure does not include projects that are on their way – including the North East Link and the Airport Rail Link. Once these projects are in the tendering phase, minimum local content will be set.

Adding up all the projects the Government has announced, around 75,000 new jobs will be created, making a total of almost 350,000 new jobs created since 2014. The previous Liberal Government created 96,100 new jobs in four years, with 21,000 fewer young Victorians in a job. $100 BILLION IN MAJOR PROJECTS The massive boost for Victorian jobs and infrastructure was confirmed by a recent Deloitte Access Economics Investment Monitor Report – which revealed there was over $100 billion in major projects underway in Victoria.

The Andrews Government has also mandated that at least 10% of all hours worked on projects valued over $20 million must be undertaken

by local apprentices, trainees and cadets. This has created around 3,500 opportunities for trainees/ apprentices and cadets, including around 1000 already on the job.

The unprecedented scale of the infrastructure pipeline in Victoria is welcome news for working people.

This pipeline of infrastructure from the Andrews Government stands in stark contrast to years of underinvestment in infrastructure by the Baillieu/Napthine state government and Abbott/Turnbull/ Morrison governments.

19

T

here shouldn’t be much more to say to construction workers when it comes to federal politics and the upcoming election:

The Liberal Party pledged to stop construction workers getting wage rises.

That should be the end of the discussion.

Liberals last, buy a democracy sausage and get on with life.

Malcolm Turnbull went on the radio and when asked he said he would stop wage rises in the construction industry. “We will stop that,” said Turnbull. “But we can’t stop that unless we win the next election.”

Only the Liberal Party could top that when it comes to being out of touch and anti-worker.

A fish rots from the head and Scott Morrison is from the same pond.

After years of lobbying from unions and the community, both Labor and the Greens now support a national anti-corruption agency, a watch dog to tackle government, public servants and big businesses that engage in corrupt behavior.

Morrison’s Liberals, like Turnbull before them, oppose an anti-corruption agency.

You have to ask why?

20

CFMEU WORKER

Nobody should be surprised that Malcolm Turnbull, merchant banker and richest politician in parliament, lowered Australia’s standing globally when it came to tackling corruption.

Australia slipped eight points over the past six years, falling from 85 out of 100 in 2012 to 77 out of 100 in 2017 in Transparency International’s global corruption index. The lower the score, the higher the perception of corruption. This places us behind countries such as Canada, New Zealand, UK and Germany.

Transparency International Australia chief executive Serena Lillywhite was scathing: “The misuse of travel allowances, inadequate regulation of foreign political donations, conflicts of interest in planning approvals, revolving doors and a culture of mateship, inappropriate industry lobbying in large-scale projects such as mining, and the misuse of power by leading politicians have no doubt had an impact,” Ms Lillywhite said.

SPRING 2018

Polling shows 80 percent of Australians want an independent national anti-corruption watchdog, yet Morrison’s Liberals continue to resist and protect their big business mates, including those exposed in the Banking Royal Commission.

The rules in this country are rigged to support the top end of town – the tax dodgers, the muli-millionaire CEOS and overseas-owned multinationals. We need to change the rules, but to do that we need to change the government.

• Scott Morrison voted more than 20 times to block the Banking Royal Commission.

• Scott Morrison voted 10 times to give the big banks a $17 billion corporate tax cut.

• The Liberals are cutting $17 billion of school funding.

• Scott Morrison is cutting $2.8 billion from hospitals between the next election and 2025.

• Under Morrison, only 1/3 of big companies pay company tax 732 companies with earnings over $100 million paid no tax.

• Scott Morrison voted 8 times to cut the penalty rates of over 70,000 low income Australian workers.

• Morrison’s intern scheme has workers exploited on just $4/hour and no rights or protections on the job.

• Inequality is at record highs: workers’ share of the national income is at its lowest level since 1964 while company profits are up 27.3%.

• 40% of Australians are in insecure work and wage growth is at record lows.

• The Liberals have cut Medicare and hospital funding every year since Tony Abbott’s horror 2014 Budget.

21

BENSTEAD & LONG FIGHT FOR BETTER AMENITIES

In April 2015 CFMEU Organisers Gerry Benstead and Steve Long pointed out to BPM Built that it wasn’t good enough there was no female toilet for the female workers working at the Bay Street, Brighton Apartment building site.

Benstead and Long made a simple request for additional amenities for the workers at the site, including more shed space and a dedicated toilet for female workers. BPM initially resisted the requests. However, eventually a dedicated female toilet and expanded amenities were provided.

That should have been the end of the matter.

Far from it - as reported in the Autumn 2017 CFMEU Worker, the ABCC got involved. The ABCC

prosecuted us all the way to a contested hearing.

You could guess the outcome given the state of our system of broken laws. Sadly, the ABCC were successful.

The Court determined that the ABCC established that the conduct of Benstead and Long was motivated by the fact BPM initially resisted their requests to provide an additional toilet and appropriate amenities. The Court found that Benstead and Long took action against BPM in contravention of the UN-Fair Work Act. Benstead, Long and the CFMEU will now face a hearing on penalty. The CFMEU will be penalised for fighting for female workers’ right to go to the toilet at work with dignity and for taking action to secure better working conditions.

It’s worth remembering that BPM are a company owned by Rich-Lister Jonathan Hallinan, reportedly worth around $500 million and a selfdescribed “Male Feminist”.

TRAVERS & HALL CUP OF TEA

“I hold the clear view that this is a case where the ABCC should be publicly exposed as having wasted public money without a proper basis for doing so” Strong words. This wasn’t a union official talking, this was the judge, Justice North.

The ABCC was ordered to pay costs to the CFMEU in a case the judge previously described as a “storm in a tea cup”.

In June 2014 Mark Travers and Adam Hall pop into a worksite operated by McConnell Dowell to see their mate and have a cup of tea. Despite advising site management that they were there for a social visit, the police were called.

In 2015 the ABCC initiates a prosecution against Travers and Hall for breaches for the anti-union ‘right of entry’ provisions in the UN-Fair Work Act. During the trial, Justice North made clear to the ABCC his thoughts about their case, saying that when the ABCC “use[s] public resources to bring the bar down to this level, it really calls into question the exercise of the discretion to proceed.” He urged the ABCC to reconsider pursuing the case, but true to form the ABCC pressed on.

Unsurprisingly, Justice North ultimately slammed the ABCC for wasting taxpayers’ money and dismissed the case. When awarding costs, he said “I’ve in fact only

become more fixed in my view, that it was a completely unnecessary waste of public money”. He added “this was a minor nothing case that wasted everybody’s money.”

The ABCC spent thousands of your dollars, briefing SILK (Senior Counsel), Junior Counsel and a law firm, over two mates having a cuppa.

Witnesses were brought in using the ABCC’s compulsory interrogation powers and even though the case was dismissed, Adam Hall and Mark Travers had accusations made against them, published in a media release from the ABCC. Last financial year, the Turnbull/Morrison Government spent 10 million dollars in its attack on construction workers. The standover tactics and waste continue.

24

CFMEU WORKER

BAHÁ’Í IS A FAITH THAT BELIEVES IN THE ESSENTIAL WORTH OF ALL RELIGIONS AND THE UNITY AND EQUALITY OF ALL PEOPLE. IT IS PREDOMINANTLY A PEACEFUL RELIGION BUT HAS FACED PERSECUTION SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN EARLY 1863.

could take the paperwork they gave us to the Australian embassy there and they would issue us with the appropriate residency visa.”

“I was 14, my sister was 15, my brother was 4 and we were all pretty scared as we sat in the back of this Toyota ute. It was like one of those ones you see on the news that the terrorists drive around in Syria or Iraq with a big machine gun on the back. Then we’ve got these grubby smugglers sitting in the back with us, we had just paid them heaps of cash to get us out of Iran and really they could’ve just buried us out in the desert.”

“About 5 km before the border we got pulled This is the story of Frank Akbari, the CFMEU over by the Revolutionary Guard, they claims officer who has clawed back more than questioned us as to where we were going. $36 million of workers’ wages and entitlements Thankfully my quick thinking dad told them illegally withheld by employers. he was a petroleum geologist and that he was It was the 1970s in Iran and all seemed well here to drill for water at a nearby village. for the Akbari family, Frank’s dad was in the He also told them I was going to marry one petroleum exploration business. All that was of the girls in the village. They took our birth about to change with the Islamic Revolution certificates which were very important in Iran of 1979. at the time and told us to pick them up on our way back, obviously that never happened.”

As members of the Bahá’í faith the Akbari family was discriminated against. Things were so grim they decided to flee to Pakistan to get away from the trouble in 1982.

IRAN’S LOSS BECAME THE AUSTRALIAN UNION MOVEMENT’S GAIN. This is how Frank tells his story.

“We were the minority religion in Iran and the new revolutionary government thought that we were spies for the Israelis and therefore we need to be shot on the spot or crucified. So we started the process of trying to sell and pack everything up to get out of the country as soon as possible.”

“Fortunately, through my dad’s contacts in the company he worked for there were a lot of Scottish, Americans and Australians, so he managed to secure a job in Australia.”

“We went straight to the Australian Embassy before it was shut down and they offered us a residency visa but warned us that we couldn’t leave the country by normal means because we were blacklisted. They suggested we should flee by whatever means possible and told us that whichever country we end up in we SPRING 2018

“The villagers suggested we either go back to the capital city and wait for the dust to settle or we flee for Pakistan and take the risk of traveling through the desert. In those days there were a lot of smugglers who brought alcohol, cigarettes and other contraband between the borders of Pakistan and Iran.

Seventy-two hours later on the backs of camels we arrived in Pakistan.”

“Now my mum is in her 70s, my dad is in his early 80s and he still works. We do reflect and sometimes I do miss the country although people always tell me it’s best to remember how it was because now it’s not the same.”

“Also national service is compulsory in Iran and during the revolution when we left the war was on between us and the Iraqis so I could get done for treason and I’m not quite sure what would happen. It depends who you end up in front of. If you’re in front of an immigration officer who’s lenient that’s okay but you might end up in front of someone who is strict and end up in prison which happens quite a lot over there.”

CFMEU members and EBA sub-contractors are $36 million better off for Frank’s freedom.

25

26

CFMEU WORKER

The first thing you do is talk to your employer and give them a chance to rectify the situation.

If they don’t, you should go to your delegate (shop steward) on-the-job.

It’s much easier to sort it out on the job, however if you can’t work it out the delegate will usually get in contact with the area organiser and the area organiser would get in touch with the company’s bosses. The area organiser will try to mediate a solution but if that fails or if it’s bigger than just getting it fixed with a quick meeting or phone call the member can ring the CFMEU office and lodge a formal wage claim complaint against the company.

You will be asked the following questions: • Are you a financial member?

• Where did the issue arise?

• Are you still on the job?

• Have you spoken to a shop steward?

• Have you spoken to an organiser?

• How long have you been working for the company?

• Has the company got an agreement?

• Is it a union site?

It needs to be established whether it’s a wage issue or your super hasn’t been paid or if it’s a WorkCover claim and then it will be directed to the appropriate department.

If it’s a wage claim, then it goes to Frank Akbari.

No employer wants to be dealing with Akbari.

The employer will have to provide him with all your payslips and time-sheets then meet with him. The member will also be asked to supply Akbari with a statement of the funds and figures that you have received.

Akbari says, “Figures don’t lie, so either you have been paid or you haven’t. I will sit down and have a chat with the company and we will prove that there is an outstanding amount and if the outstanding amount needs to be paid we get it paid.”

“Our EBAs are certified by the Fair Work Commission so it is a legally binding agreement and the employer is bound by those guidelines.

By law they need to pay and if there is a shortfall either we end up on a dispute panel or we just sort it out with the builder over the phone. Sometimes if it’s bigger than just one or two people or if it is rampant throughout the SPRING 2018

company, we may need to take it further than just a call.”

“I will give you an example: there was a cleaner who used to work for what I call a tier 2 company, without mentioning any names.

He was on a massive job on Collins Street that was a government funded job. Builders have to be very careful when they do government funded jobs because they don’t want to expose themselves to the media or bad publicity because they will never get another government job.”

“The cleaner rang me saying he was underpaid.

There was clear proof he wasn’t getting the right penalty rates or getting any of the allowances and he could prove this with his time-sheets and payslips. Through investigation we found the payslip that he supplied us was different to the payslip the company had supplied us. The company was cooking the books. We sat down and did the figures and we cross-referenced his time-sheets with the company’s and noticed he had a wage claim of $67,000.

I rang the boss and asked him to come to the office. When he arrived for the appointment, I said to him do you want to take this sitting down or standing up, he said, ‘I know what it is, I just want to make an arrangement to pay it in three instalments if I can’ and he paid the whole $67,000. Often they know they are ripping you off and they unfortunately need to be told.”

CFMEU RECOVERED WAGES

• $36 MILLION IN 5 YEARS • $23 MILLION IN WAGES AND ALLOWANCES • $13 MILLION IN EBA SUB-CONTRACTOR PAYMENTS 27

I DON’T REALLY CRY

that easily

A

fter raising more than one million dollars for the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, the Victorian and Tasmanian branch of the CFMEU this year decided to throw its weight behind a new charity, Amaze.

It makes sense for us to support this charity as it’s estimated that one in four CFMEU members are, in some way, either directly affected by autism or know of someone close to us that is.

At a Friday spit roast lunch in July at the CBUS property job in Collins street (Collins Arch), CFMEU rank and file members, along with John Setka and Derek Christopher, handed Fiona Sharkie, the CEO of Amaze, our first donation in the form of a big cheque for $50,000. This generosity came from member donations and Amaze/CFMEU merchandise sales over preceding months.

Multiplex also stepped up on the day and gave another $5,000, while a raffle for a big screen TV donated by Multiplex and a few drills from Form700 on the day raised close to $5,000.

John Setka in thanking members stated: “For a few dollars for a worthwhile cause like this, the difference you make to families is just absolutely incredible you would never really realise.

There’s a lot of good causes around but this is one of the big ones. It goes towards kids and their families and we’ve got to be part of it to help them out.”

An emotional Fiona Sharkie said: “I don’t really cry that easily, but I did cry a couple of Fridays ago when Derek Christopher told me how much money you had all raised. I just want you to know that this is probably the biggest donation we’ve ever had at Amaze in my four years of being here so it really does mean an enormous amount to us and that’s why I cried. So I really want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.”

a newly diagnosed child every year. For an organisation of only 22 people it really punches above its weight. Amaze has trained over 65 organisations to become autism friendly by supporting things like autism friendly theatre productions of Aladdin that are tailored for autistic children. “The theatre group were delighted to be performing an autism form of the production and the cast enjoyed, for the first time, seeing and engaging with an audience as the lights were left on for a change,” Sharkie says.

Amaze has also been working with libraries across the state to do sensory sensitive story-time for kids with autism so they can become involved from age two. A lot of parents who have children on the spectrum have told Amaze how they haven’t been to a playground for years because their children are not generally accepted. Amaze believes every child has the right to a mainstream education, every child with autism has the right to participate and contribute in all the ways that children do, and that is their quest.

Sharkie mentions a recent article in The Australian that was upsetting as it seemed to blame autism for threatening the viability of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

“We have now got families that are calling us, absolutely terrified that they won’t get funding because of what was written in the newspaper, so if you know of any families or anyone that is dealing with autism they should keep pushing for the NDIS. They should tell us if they are having problems getting onto the NDIS because that is a fight we are going to win,” she says.

Amaze is in touch with about 2300 families in Victoria with

28

CFMEU WORKER

CFMEU Madison The daughter of a prominent Melbourne barrister who attended a private girls school, Madison was a qualified beauty therapist, a paralegal and destined for university - but none of that was for her.

any chauvinism going on in the shed behind her back that there are blokes that would be looking out for her and have her back.

Instead, she took on traffic control, working for a non-EBA company for about four years.

“Being a female in those days in a male dominated industry and having to wear heels and skirts in a very chauvinistic environment, my mother has been incredibly supportive of me to get into the role I am in now,” she says.

During those first four years in the industry she was treated disrespectfully and saw a lot of other people getting treated badly. They were sexually harassed and bullied by bosses and workers. They were doing shifts as long as 20 hours without any breaks without even being allowed to go to the bathroom: things were looking grim.

When she got the chance to work on an EBA job and joined the CFMEU her life changed dramatically for the better. Her life changed even more when she became a shop steward.

“I actually never knew that a shop steward position existed when I was non-EBA and I thought who’s out there looking after people like myself? However, when I joined the CFMEU and I found out about the position of shop steward I thought well that’s perfect for me. To be the person making sure that everyone is treated fairly in the right conditions getting what they deserve - because I didn’t get that,’’ she says.

Since joining the union and getting on EBA jobs Madison has not had one negative experience. On-site she is respected and knows that if there is 30

Her mother is a retired police officer and worked in Melbourne in the 70s.

As one of the first CFMEU female shop stewards in Australia, Madison really wants to present as a role model for other women: “I hope other women can see Skye and I doing this role and know that it’s possible for them. I want them to feel like their voices don’t go unheard and people will listen to them. Also I just want to send out a big thank to Theo Theodorou and Lisa Zanatta from the CFMEU for their help and encouragement they gave me to get me into this position.”

Madison’s advice to any women wanting to get into the construction industry is: “Go to young activist meetings or branch meetings as there are lots of people who are interested in what you have to say and they genuinely want to see you do well. I would also recommend traffic is a great place to start and get your foot in the door and get as many tickets as you can from forklift to a rigger’s ticket. Aim high, why not?”

CFMEU WORKER

MEN WkO s ye With her striking red hair you can’t miss Skye Allan. Not only does she stand out, she is a standout human being. A childcare worker for seven years, Skye struggled financially like many in Australia today. Her wages didn’t keep up with constant increases in the cost of living.

Allan feels extremely privileged to be in the position she is in and is incredibly dedicated to her job: she goes to most branch meetings, young activist meetings and pretty much every rally that happens in Melbourne that supports better conditions for the working class.

So, while she loved childcare, she needed a better-paid job. She’s been the deputy shop steward on a Mirvac site in Albert Street East Melbourne since demolition and hasn’t looked back. For a job that has 350 burly construction workers, of which only three are women, this is quite an achievement.

“All my training I did down at the CFMEU education and training unit was just fantastic. I would like to give a shout out to Mark Devereaux down there who I did my first aid level II with. He was really helpful, a great instructor. Also I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for all the delegates that have supported me, but especially the organiser Lisa Zanatta who gave me guidance and has been a fantastic mentor.”

It was her stepfather Dale Cox, a shop steward with the CFMEU, who put the idea in Skye’s head to get in to the construction industry.

“He would come home and often talk about what he did during the day, and consistently suggested I join a union as I wasn’t in one. He would always say, ‘just sign up, just do it.’ In the end he got me onto a site doing traffic management and then I just went from there, I loved it. He really did inspire me to get into the construction industry and join the CFMEU and I am most grateful to him for that. But not only me, my mum was doing aged care back then and now she’s also in the construction industry working for MC Labour. She’s at the Children’s Hospital now and revelling in it,’’ she says.

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One of the most important things to Skye is that everyone gets home safely: “I come from childcare and have always had that nurturing feeling towards people, all people. I would have stayed in childcare but it was just that I couldn’t afford to live on what I was earning.”

Skye goes to the gym most mornings before work and enjoys shopping for clothes or travelling with her partner. Sporting pink boots, Allan was keen to remind us that $10 goes towards breast cancer from the pink boots so get in them!

31

Licensing

of trades legislation a nd why qua l if icat ions a re go o d fo r you

A

s our 5th group of young people complete their pre-apprenticeship in carpentry, there has never been a better time for the skills and knowledge of building industry trades people to be recognised.

Australia has one of the most productive and skilled construction industries in the world and we will only keep it that way if we nurture and preserve the skills of our current and future generations of workers.

For a long time, the CFMEU has talked about the dream of protecting jobs, skills and our trades by licencing our trades and that dream has recently moved closer to a reality.

Making it law In July 2018, a Bill to license construction industry trades was introduced into the Victorian parliament. This Bill, if passed, will revolutionise the way the industry thinks about and treats trades people. Just like electricians and plumbers, our traditional tradespeople such as carpenters, plasterers, bricklayers and painters will be fully qualified and licensed to work in their occupations.

With these new requirements will come better training of apprentices, better quality of work, better job security and most importantly higher safety standards.

It has taken decades and decades of debate 32

and pressure from building unions to reach this point and although we have not yet settled on the detail, the introduction of the Bill marks a significant turning point.

What the bill says:

BUILDING AMENDMENT (REGISTRATION OF BUILDING TRADES AND OTHER MATTERS) BILL 2018 A Bill for an Act to amend the Building Act 1993 to make it an offence for persons to carry out certain types of building work and related offences without being registered or licensed to do so, to provide for the provisional registration of builders and the licensing of building employees who carry out certain building work...

The fine print Like most good things though, the changes will not happen overnight. Details will need to be debated and put into regulation. Our skilled and experienced workers who do not hold formal qualifications will need a system that gives them the time and ability to have their skills recognised.

Employers will need to adjust to a reinvigorated apprenticeship system and the responsibilities that come with growing their contribution to the future skills base of the industry. Our schools and educational institutions will need industry support to convince young people and their parents that the building industry is a good, long term career option.

Industry fight back For too long our industry has been subjected to false and negative publicity which has diminished our reputation in the public eye, allowed

conservative governments to pass laws which attack workers and their skills, and which has opened the industry up further to the shonky and the shifty.

A strong, regulated skills and licensing system protects our industry from the fly by nighters – the shafters who exploit vulnerable workers and who produce cheap and nasty work.

Under the CFMEU’s proposal, these profit seekers will find it harder and harder to cheat and exploit.

Time to shine Our union and our members are on the brink of a great opportunity – an opportunity to secure our skills base for ourselves and for future generations. It really is an exciting time to be a super skilled CFMEU pre-app looking for an apprenticeship.

For information about pre-apprenticeships and apprentices, contact the CFMEU Education and Training Unit: 9341 3444

HOW DOES IT ALL WORK? Regulations • The Bill will be debated in parliament and once passed consultation will begin to detail the operation of the system • These details will be made law through Regulations • It may take up to 2 years for the regulations to be finalised and implementation to begin Licensing and registration Under the new laws: • employees will have to be qualified and licensed to carry out certain trades work SPRING 2018

• subcontractors will have to be qualified and registered to carry out certain building work • It will be an offence to direct anyone to carry out the building work covered under these laws unless the person doing the work is either registered (e.g. subcontractors) or licensed (employees) Full and provisional licenses • trades people will be able to apply to the Building Authority for a full or provisional license (depending on qualifications) • The provisional license will be valid for 5 years.

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UNION SITES ARE

WE KNOW SAFETY IS UNION BUSINESS AND THAT TOGETHER WE HAVE THE STRENGTH TO STAND UP, SPEAK OUT AND COME HOME SAFELY. BUT DO WE REALLY KNOW THAT UNION WORK IS SAFER WORK? YES.

T

here’s always been plenty of evidence, but a new report has again confirmed it: union membership results in less fatalities.

Several states in the United States of America have introduced wrongly named ‘Right to Work’ laws that weaken unions and reduce union membership.

A study by Michael Zoorob1 from the Department of Government at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, looked at the effect of these laws on workplace fatalities through their effect on unionisation.

The results? “A 1% decline in unionisation attributable to ‘Right to Work’ laws sees a 5% increase in the rate of occupational fatalities. In total, ‘right to Work’ laws have led to a 14.2% increase in occupational mortality through decreased unionisation.”

THAT IS SHOCKING. NOBODY SHOULD BE KILLED AT WORK, YET NEW ANTI-UNION LAWS IN THE USA HAVE LED TO A 14.2% INCREASE IN WORKPLACE DEATHS.

While this study is from the USA, it delivers a clear warning to Australian workers: union sites are safer and being an active union member makes a difference to workplace safety.

It’s a powerful message to the Morrison Liberal Government, who continue to push every anti-union law their big business donors and the IPA can come up with.

fatalities have climbed somewhat since 2008, a reversal from previous years, during the same period that several states adopted RTW. In light of these findings, policymakers in the USA and other countries might consider how declining unionisation rates may impact worker safety.”

PREVIOUS STUDIES HAVE ALSO FOUND WORKERS IN A UNIONISED WORKPLACE ARE 70 PER CENT MORE LIKELY TO BE AWARE OF OHS HAZARDS AND ISSUES.

Of course, Liberal Governments have always chosen to pursue their anti-worker agenda, putting the profits of big business ahead of safety. Another study showing lives are at risk is unlikely to sway them.

These studies are important for us as union members though – to share this information with our workmates, friends and family and to make sure everyone joins their union.

HOW DOES THE UNION MAKE SITES SAFER? Zoorob’s study looked at workplace fatalities, anti-union laws and union membership density to confirm that reducing union membership through anti-union laws increased workplace fatalities. To further explain this, he discussed previous research that found “collective bargaining agreements secured by unions provide numerous workplace hazards protections, such as shift restrictions (to prevent fatigue) and safety equipment provision, along with other potential benefits to health such as more generous employerprovided medical insurance.”

“Studies suggest that unionised workplaces receive more health and safety inspections from the federal agency OSHA, and the threat of union organising may impel employers to improve workplace safety.”

“Though worker fatalities have declined in the last two decades in the USA, this decline has been steeper in states with higher levels of unionisation. Moreover, this study shows that RTW (Right to Work) legislation, under consideration in many state legislatures and nationwide, may lead to greater workplace mortality through decreasing the percentage of unionised workers. Indeed, worker

GROWING EVIDENCE A Canadian study in 20152 found that workers in unionised companies reported 23 per cent fewer injuries that required time off work than those with non-union employers. The study found unionised workers were also 17 per cent less likely to experience muscle, tendon, and nerve injuries that affect mobility and almost 30 per cent less likely to suffer critical injuries that put their lives at risk.

Interestingly, the Canadian study, which analysed data from more than 40,000 construction companies, found that although safety differences between union and non-union employers were less significant when controlled for company size, even when that size effect was eliminated, unionised companies still showed 14 per cent fewer serious injuries.

Across the world and here in Australia, the evidence is clear: union membership delivers better safety, better conditions and of course better wages. That the Morrison Liberal Government would put their own political agenda ahead of workers, our lives and safety, should not be forgotten.

1 2

Zoorob M. Occup Environ Med, June 2018 Institute for Work and Health, 2015.

THE FACTS, THE SOLUTIONS get lost. For example, both women and men are more likely to experience violence at the hands of a man, with around 95% of all victims of violence in Australia reporting a male perpetrator.

SO WHOSE PROBLEM IS THIS? WHO NEEDS TO CHANGE?

“MEN ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PROBLEM. MEN MUST BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SOLUTION. VIOLENCE AND BULLYING AGAINST WOMEN MUST END. AND WHAT WE WALK PAST WE ACCEPT.”

W

ith recent media coverage on violent crimes against women and the brutal rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon in Carlton North, we ask the question: is now the right time to start discussing what the CFMEU and members can do to help change the attitudes towards women and girls that leads to violence and how we can work together to end violence against women?

Four women featured on the front page of The Age newspaper on Friday, August 3, 2018 with the headline: “THIS MUST STOP”. Samantha Fraser, 38, Karen Ristevski, 47, Joy Rowley, 60 and Snezana Stojanovska, 26, who was three-months pregnant when she was killed.

How do we start a conversation that is constructive, not just another useless argument? Social media is abuzz with movements such as #metoo and the reactive #notallmen. Discussions become defensive and personal, and the basic facts and statistics surrounding violence

36

John Setka Here are some more Australian stats: •

One in three women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by someone known to them

•

One in five women have been stalked

•

Eight out of ten women aged 18 to 24 were harassed on the street in the past year

•

On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner.

These statistics, as reported by the official agencies that collect the data, are alarming. This shouldn’t be happening in 2018.

Violence against women is not just limited to the home or intimate relationships. Every year in Australia, over 300,000 women experience violence – often sexual violence – from someone other than a partner and this doesn’t include the violence that goes unreported.

When a violent crime is committed against a female, the response of the media and community too often blames the victim, instead of looking at the situation as a whole and focusing on the perpetrator’s actions.

For example, those who say ‘if only she only wasn’t walking home alone’.

WE ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND FREELY TRAVEL WITHOUT FEAR OF VIOLENCE – AT HOME, IN THE WORKPLACE OR ANYWHERE. CFMEU WORKER

Victim blaming and debating whether a women should be responsible for her own safety only further delays finding a real solution to this ongoing problem. The #notallmen kneejerk response that fills social media and general discussion is a prime example that some people are still either missing the point or seeking to deny the reality. By doing so, they derail an important conversation we all should be having.

Of course not all men are violent or abusive. Nobody is actually accusing ‘all men’ of violence, which seems to be the assumption of some responding to the #metoo movement or people pointing out that violent crime is overwhelmingly committed by men.

The facts don’t lie.

Yes, women can be violent, and perhaps it doesn’t appear in crime stats. That’s because the violence has a different impact – men don’t generally live in fear of violence.

Collectively we need to stand up and call out bad behaviour and tackle the underlying issues of why men use violence. We need the men who aren’t violent to start standing up.

Lisa Zanatta, CFMEU organiser and women’s officer says:

•

“We all have a responsibility when it comes to eliminating violence against women.

CFMEU delegates have participated in workshops and training that give them tools to deal with bad behaviour on site and support people experiencing violence.

•

“It’s a workplace issue and union business – violence doesn’t stop impacting people when they walk through the site gate.

Men who use violence taking responsibility for their actions would be a good place to start. Taking responsibility for the behaviour is a first step to decrease attacks on women and shift to a model of respectful relationships and gender equality.

To prevent violence against women we need to: •

promote gender equality in public and private life.

•

educate boys from a young age about respecting and acknowledging everyone as equals.

The Me Too Movement (#MeToo) is a movement against sexual harassment and assault. #MeToo spread virally in October 2017 as a hashtag used on social media to demonstrate how shockingly frequent sexual assault and harassment is around the world. It followed soon after 80 women made sexual misconduct allegations against a well-known film producer Harvey Weinstein. The #metoo movement gave victims of sexual harassment or abuse a platform to post openly about what they had endured.

SPRING 2018

challenge the attitudes that lead to violence against women, and promote women’s independence and decision-making in public life and relationships.

By doing this we strengthen positive, equal and respectful relationships between and among women and men, girls and boys.

These simple, constructive conversations are what we want our members to start having, this is where change begins to happen. It is an exciting time with more women coming into the construction industry, making this issue even more important.

So to our female members, wives, girlfriends, daughters, sisters, mums, and all the women linked to the CFMEU: you are a strong force behind this union, you are important, respected, and equal.

We pride ourselves at the CFMEU in standing up for the ones who need help, we dig deep for worthy causes and we see each other as equals.

Equality doesn’t come with conditions.

STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR EQUALITY AND PUT AN END TO VIOLENCE.

‘Not all men’ (#notallmen) is a reaction to the #metoo movement.

It is a shortened hashtag version of the phrase ‘not all men are like that’. ‘Not all men’ started as an expression of frustration, but became more commonly used to deflect the conversation away from men’s behaviour. The phrase has been criticised for derailing conversations from uncomfortable topics, such as sexual assault and the gender attitudes that are known to lead to violence.

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T

he upcoming federal election is a choice about the kind of Australia we want to live in. We have an increasingly paranoid government hell-bent on demonising the work of unions like the CFMEU and undermining the ability of working people to bargain collectively for better pay and conditions. They continue to shamelessly attack ordinary workers and at the same time give their mates in the banks a $17 billion handout. This highlights where Turnbull and Morrison’s priorities lie – once a banker, always a banker.

If you change the government you change the country, and more specifically you can change the rules. This is what drives Libby Coker the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Corangamite.

In a recent interview Coker said “I want to see a fairer Australia, in which all workers enjoy fair pay and conditions and come home

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safe. This means dismantling the draconian ABCC, a body which has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with criminalising the work of unionists like John Setka and Shaun Reardon. This also means protecting the right of workers to a safe workplace - I will fight for the introduction of industrial manslaughter laws that will ensure employers are held accountable for their actions.

One death on any worksite is too many.”

The seat of Corangamite will be absolutely crucial in deciding the next election and the future of working people and their families.

Corangamite covers everything from the Geelong hinterland to the coast past Cape Otway and is now one of the most marginal seats in the country. Coker says, “I’ve spent all my working life here as a teacher, local councillor and raising my two children.

The nature of our communities has changed significantly over the last three decades, but the needs of these communities remain the same. They need good quality healthcare, schools and TAFE and secure local jobs. The people of Corangamite deserve better than the neglect they have suffered under Scott Morrison and the Liberals. We need to fund hospitals not banks.”

To be elected in Corangamite means going up against big corporate money and the fight is not an easy one. But if you don’t fight, you lose. Already many workers have joined this fight, and like any good campaign this effort is built on collective solidarity. Builders, electricians, firefighters, hospitality workers, nurses and the CFMEU stand behind Coker and her pledge to do everything she can to repay their faith and change the government to change the rules.

CFMEU WORKER

E

lections are about jobs and working conditions, the battle of WorkChoices that took down John Howard and the Liberal Party is an example of this. So when a CFMEU rank and file member like Mark Richards straight from the shop floor stands up to campaign as a candidate for the seat of Morwell in the upcoming state election it’s something that deserves not only our attention but our support.

Mark Richards has been a paid up CFMEU member since 1990, with the mining and energy division, something he is very proud of and says, “Without the union in my corner fighting for pay and conditions it would have been like fighting wearing a blindfold.”

Richards understands working class issues as he is a bluecollar worker himself and has

SPRING 2018

seen it all. From Jeff Kennett’s privatisation of the State Electricity Commission in the 90s which cost his community 7800 jobs to the closure of the Morwell Power Station five years ago and last year’s closure of the Morwell Mine and Hazelwood Power Station. All this has given him the passion and the drive to make a real difference if elected.

Hazelwood’s closure by the French multinational company ENGIE, directly caused the loss of 750 jobs in the Latrobe Valley and Richards estimates the overall job losses through the supply chain is more like 3000, a devastating blow for any small regional community.

After volunteering as a Health and Safety rep for over 15 years and a delegate for many of those, Mark was elected to the position of Hazelwood Lodge

President. During his time at Hazelwood he negotiated eight years of EBAs with ongoing 5% pay rises and most notably a redundancy clause that saw workers receive four weeks’ pay for each year of service.

In 50 years of operation this was the first time this had been achieved.

This led the way to Mark being a key voice in the development of Australia’s first ‘Worker Transfer Scheme’ for the Hazelwood workers and a blueprint for a fair and ‘Just Transition’ of redundant workers.

Mark’s lifelong commitment to fighting for workplace health and safety, job security, and fair pay for all is what we need in politics today. So if you live in the Morwell electorate show him your support; he is our man.

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CFMEU ORGANISER MARK “FOZZIE” TAIT IS TAKING HIS FIGHT FOR LOCAL WORKING PEOPLE TO STATE PARLIAMENT.

“I liked the challenge of being up here, a lot of it was untouched by the union. Once you got to know the workers it was really good to be able service them.”

Benambra is considered a rural electorate, it’s certainly big for a state district at over 10,000 square kilometres, but Fozzie says the area has changed a bit: “a lot of factories have moved up here,” he says. “Workers have become more educated in collective bargaining and unionism. Wodonga is one of the fastest growing areas outside of Melbourne. It brings a different attitude to the Labor Party and workers issues than we had 20 years ago.”

“Builders up along the Murray never really had EBAs, but we put together the first border agreement which helped better represent the workers in the area.”

From Wodonga and Rutherglen to Corryong, down to Mt Beauty and back up to Beechworth, Fozzie has called the area home for over 20 years now.

“The VSBTU (Victorian State Building Trades Union) had merged in with the CFMEU around 1997, they had an organiser based in Shepparton who was moving and they were going to advertise it. I said I’d go up and have a look and see what it was like.”

40

“People were working in domestic or back on their farms in between jobs, we got a couple of big jobs started up and worked from there.”

Foz says the workers in the North East are a little different to city people, many have a hobby farm, or a bit of land up in the mountains.

“They all know each other, they’re tied in to the footy club or other sports club.

They look at things a bit differently.”

There’s not always consistent work in terms of bigger jobs and a lot of workers live away from home.

“The builders around here quote for work in a really big area, so they could be travelling 300400km for a job.”

It’s been a fairly natural progression for Fozzie. The Labor Party and local Trades and Labour Councils were looking for someone and approached him.

“A few of us had a discussion about it. They’ve never stood a trade unionist up here before, so I thought it was a good opportunity for change.”

From a Builders Labourer who came over from New Zealand at 19 years old, Fozzie did an adult apprenticeship with the Fibrous Plasterers’ Union in Collingwood around 1987. He never looked back and became a naturalised Australian in 2000.

Don’t worry, it’s state politics not federal, so there’ll be no citizenship issues!

Fozzie is hearing the local concerns and wants to see them addressed: “the rail system to Melbourne is an issue, health services, education – there’s a lot of schools up here that have been crying out for a long time.”

“Hopefully we can get some more infrastructure projects up here down the track, get our members out there working, with the right wages and conditions of course.”

“The Change the Rules campaign in terms of casualised labour, visa workers being exploited and so on – I’ll be raising those issues.”

A worker and a true workers’ representative in Parliament has got to be a good thing.

CFMEU WORKER

SUPER

YOUR INSURANCE AT RISK The Liberal Government is proposing to alter insurance cover arrangements for members of super funds from July 2019.

Cbus is campaigning against the proposals because it will affect many members’ automatic access to insurance cover. The Government wants to: •

Exclude members under 25 years of age from default insurance

•

Exclude default insurance where a person has $6,000 or less in their account

•

Remove insurance cover from inactive accounts once a person hasn’t received contributions for 13 months (unless they choose to keep it.)

The Government claims that young people are less likely to need cover and shouldn’t have insurance premiums deducted from their super. This isn’t the case for Cbus members. Insurance is as important for new starters and people under 25 as it is for everyone else. Our members work in an industry that scores among the highest for incidence of injury and workplace fatalities. Many of our members typically have dependants, debts and responsibilities from around 21 years of age, three to four years after they start work.

The issue of inactive members also has consequences for our members as gaps between jobs is common.

These changes would affect the entire Cbus membership because by removing these members from our group cover, we reduce the buying power of a broader collective pool – which will almost certainly result in higher insurance premiums – estimated to be upwards of 20%.

One of the benefits of being a Cbus member is that eligible members get access to insurance cover that could be difficult and expensive to access any other way for workers in the building and construction industry.

SPRING 2018

AUTOMATIC TRANSFERS TO THE ATO Another change proposed by the Federal Government is to transfer accounts with less than $6,000 that haven’t received contributions for 13 months to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The ATO will then seek to find an active super account to transfer the money. If no other account exists, the ATO will hold this money which would earn a low rate of interest.

This could affect many of our inactive members who do not have any other active super accounts and stay in Cbus to maintain insurance cover.

STANDING UP FOR MEMBERS Cbus wants to make sure we can continue to provide insurance we know our members need and want. We are engaging with our membership, industry bodies and decision makers in Government to address these changes so that our members don’t lose out.

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THE UNION

DIFFERENCE T R A I N E D & Q UA L I F I E D H S R S , M E M B E R S A N D D E L E G AT E S

W

e all know that a unionised site is a safer site and that the biggest factor in ensuring that our sites are safe is the OHS knowledge and skills of our members, our Health and Safety Representatives and our delegates.

The CFMEU’s OHS training is instrumental in developing this skill and knowledge. Over 25 years the CFMEU, through its training arm, has been educating members not only in the laws and regulations governing OHS but how to speak up, how to negotiate OHS solutions and how to act when work is unsafe.

OUT OF THE MINES The CFMEU Education and Training Unit recently welcomed a new OHS teacher to the team. Helen Whooley came from the mining industry where she worked as an underground

42

truck driver and drillers’ offsider. She describes work in the mines as dirty, hard and dangerous.

“It’s high risk work, like construction.

High risk work needs people who understand the industry and the laws and regulations that will protect workers safety and health” says Helen.

course. I wish I had done the course while I was on the job, I would have loved to have the knowledge I have now about the role of the Reps, their entitlements and powers.”

When Helen was elected as the HSR for her work group at the mine, she experienced first-hand the discrimination that smart HSRs often face.

Helen’s experience illustrates how important it is that our HSRs and their deputies exercise their entitlements under the OHS Act to attend the initial HSR 5-day training course and the yearly one-day refresher course. Sure, HSRs learn lots through experience, but why make it harder than it has to be?

“Management at the mine didn’t want me to be the HSR so they organised another election suggesting I wouldn’t be able to cope with the pressure the guys would put on me to address health and safety issues. There was another election and the guys voted me back in. During that time there was no talk of me going on the HSR

SMARTER AND SAFER The support that the CFMEU provides to HSRs through our courses and backed up by monthly reps’ meetings is what has made our HSR structure so powerful and has ensured that up to date and correct information is out there. The CFMEU HSR course is written for building CFMEU WORKER

and construction HSRs and has been approved by WorkSafe Victoria.

The CFMEU Education and Training Unit also has a range of OHS courses for delegates and activists. These options include a 5-day course and more extensive courses such as Certificate III, IV and Diploma in WHS. Each is designed to add to the existing OHS knowledge of the participants. The knowledge and skills shared in these courses by experienced building and construction workers is invaluable and is unique to CFMEU training.

Building and construction workers are confronted with OHS issues every day of their working lives. In contrast, the people who run the companies our members work for are driven primarily by production and profits, not the well-being of workers. The

CFMEU has taken the lead in OHS for decades. There’s lots of work out there at the moment, don’t let complacency or arrogance erode our critical OHS knowledge and skills base.

EVIDENCE BASE If your own experience doesn’t convince you, then decades of academic research shows consistently that OHS training: •

increases hazard awareness among workers, particularly in high risk industries

•

promotes better knowledge and adoption of safe work practices, and

•

contributes significantly to the reduction of workplace fatalities and serious injuries.

The right to a workplace that is free from work-related injury or disease is fundamental. Get in touch with the Education and Training Unit and get educated today!

9341 3444

VIC.CFMEU.ORG.AU/TRAINING

can you name this animal? __ __ __ Last seen crawling around the offices of Morrison s ABCC. SPRING 2018

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ONSITE

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CFMEU WORKER

West Gate Bridge Memorial

Monday 15th October Commemoration begins 11.30am West Gate Memorial site Under the bridge in Douglas Parade, Spotswood 48 year anniversary of Australia’s worst industrial accident, the 1970 collapse that took 35 lives.

18 workers survived, some returned to work on the rebuild.

Join survivors, their families and union members across our industry and movement to remember the victims and the brave workers who risked everything to recover the dead and hurt.

Christian Aquilina was a dogman at Komp Cranes, a small business with five cranes and twelve blokes.

Aquilina was at the core of this tight crew before he tragically passed away in an accident home.

At the Aurora site on La Trobe street and the MAP Jet Base site at Tullamarine the hat was passed around and more than $13,000 was raised for his wife Traci Aquilina who wants everyone to know that she is most grateful for your generosity.

how long he had worked for, how cold it was or what was going on. Everyone he worked with trusted him completely.”

“It's just tough losing someone so quickly and instantly, we all lost a great friend and the boss lost a fantastic worker. It’s just so permanent.”

One of his good mates Ben Ind, his crane driver for the last three years reflects:

When his best mate Christian Peterson heard that Aquilina had passed away he didn’t think twice about it, he just walked off of his oil rig job on the same day, got on a plane and flew down to support Traci.

“I think to myself I might have only known him for three years but I spent a lot more time with him than most people I’ve known over those years.”

Colin (Shifty) Reddie, fellow dogman from Komp Cranes, said “I have never seen so many grown men cry, in fact I am about to cry now.”

“He was always in a great mood, it didn't matter

“Traci asked me if we could, through the union

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CFMEU WORKER

journal as she can't do it personally because there were so many involved, make sure everyone who helped her and the kids knows she is most grateful for your support.”

James Larson, a dogman rigger, reflects “My time with Christian was golden, he was a mentor of mine on a daily basis. I worked with him most days of the week and he always showed me the right way of doing everything. I always felt safe with him and he always made me laugh. I learned from him the right way to do everything, I guess he taught me everything.”

“Wherever Christian was everyone was laughing.

He is always just being Christian, making everyone SPRING 2018

laugh. He spoke about his family all the time, his two daughters, how proud he was of them, what they were up to and how Traci was going.”

“Christian held everything really close to his heart and he would have done anything for his mates.

As well as his family he had time for everybody, he was the world's busiest man. My heart goes out to everyone and the union for their support, it's been really special.”

“When you work with people for so many hours a day they become your family, even though they're not blood they are family. That’s the only way I can put it, it’s a complete tragedy and it just goes to show you it can happen to anybody, anytime.”

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O

n the 22nd January 2018, 13-year-old Taylor Henry was taken to the Geelong hospital with what was thought to be an irregular heartbeat. A few short hours later she was transferred to the Royal Children’s Hospital ICU, where her parents were told that she had a virus in her heart called Myocarditis.

Within hours of Taylor being at the RCH she was placed into a coma and put on life support.

Over the course of the next 22 days Taylor would undergo several procedures, operations and three major open-heart surgeries.

Despite the best efforts of doctors and nurses Taylor sadly lost her battle with Myocarditis on the 15th February 2018.

Since the passing of Taylor, her parents Paula and Mark have started the Team Taylor Foundation, with the hope of raising awareness of Myocarditis and to carry on the legacy of their daughter Taylor by offering: • Scholarships; whether it be sporting, academic or within the community • Helping other families dealing with Myocarditis in conjunction with the Royal Children’s Hospital • And the big dream is to buy a house or unit within walking distance of the RCH that will be fully furnished and self-contained to help families that have to relocate from interstate or country Victoria to receive the best possible care for their child without the worry of extra bills, rent, etc.

CHECK OUT THE NEW TEAM TAYLOR WEBSITE:

TEAMTAYLOR.ORG.AU FACEBOOK: ‘Team Taylor’: bit.ly/teamtaylorfb INSTAGRAM: @Team_TaylorXX www.instagram.com/team_taylorxx

Taylor’s parents and the whole of Team Taylor thank everyone for their support.

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CFMEU WORKER

INCOLINK OFFERS

FREE AND CONFIDENTIAL

COUNSELLING

TO ALL MEMBERS AND THEIR FAMILIES 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK.

“The construction industry experiences higher suicide rates than any other industry.” - Dom Vigilanti from Incolink.

For years even saying the word ’suicide’ has been taboo. You couldn’t talk about it because it was always thought that it might put the idea in someone’s head.

Dom Vigilanti from Incolink says “We decided we needed to shift the focus a little bit and that’s not taking the focus away from mental health at all because it all goes hand-in-hand, it’s all related.

We need to put the focus on suicide, we need to give people permission to freely talk about suicide.”

Last year we lost 2866 people by suicide alone, that is double the road toll and it’s just unacceptable. 2200 of those were male and one in six of those were from the construction industry.

Vigilanti says, “We need to talk about it and that’s the only way we’re going to reduce those numbers.

They are just astronomical numbers. That’s why we keep repeating the message, because that is the message, the message is about repetition.”

“I have attended ten suicides in the last year, in this industry. Ten! The year before that was five and the year before that it was three, so personally I’ve been seeing an increase in suicide in our industry. It’s a huge number, I keep saying it, it’s just astronomical.”

Incolink’s Life Care program aims to prevent suicide by raising awareness of risk factors and promoting positive life skills among young people in the building and construction industry.

Incolink is committed to assisting workers who have personal issues that may affect their wellbeing. All members, including regional based members, can access Incolink counselling services across Victoria and Tasmania simply by calling 1300 000 129 anytime.

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COUNSELLING SERVICES

• • • • • • •

Relationship difficulties Stress, anxiety and depression Mental health issues Feelings of suicide Grief and loss Alcohol & other drugs support Financial Rights support

CRITICAL INCIDENT SUPPORT Critical incidents that can affect Incolink members include; • Injuries on site • ‘Near miss’ on site • Fatalities on site or off site • Suicide of a fellow worker • Suicide of a member of the general public on site • Traffic accidents on or off site If you have been impacted by a critical incident on your work site please call us now for further support.

INCOLINK 24/7 COUNSELLING

1300 000 129 53

The Stolen

GENERATIONS Y

ou’ve heard the term ‘stolen generation’, but think about it for just a minute. Imagine if it happened to your family, how would you deal with it?

It wasn’t just one generation. Well into the 1980s indigenous families, whose culture is all about the collective of community, were still being barbarically torn apart in a premeditated genocide that started in 1770.

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Now we come from England, Scotland, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Vietnam, China, North America, South America, Afghanistan, India, New Zealand, Russia, Croatia and every other country you can think of, there are too many to list. We have become Australian, a truly multinational country and we are mostly only one or two generations away from being migrants. We have the best of the world, many brought it with us, our food and cultures have blended to make us what we are today.

CFMEU WORKER

If anyone has the right to be racist it would be the indigenous people of this country, but they are not, yet they are still often discriminated against.

It’s the hard truth you can’t argue with. The CFMEU recognise this and want to support our indigenous communities.

THE FIRST STEP IS FOR ALL ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER MEMBERS TO STAND UP AND BE COUNTED. THE CFMEU HAS A QUICK FORM TO FILL OUT, AVAILABLE THROUGH SHOP STEWARDS AND ON THE WEBSITE: VIC.CFMEU.ORG.AU/ATSI

“I’ve got to the stage that I have paid all my debts off and bought a house and my kids will get to grow up in the same house their whole life and they will have something when I die.”

“It’s just nice to see blackfellas buying themselves a car or taking their kids on a holiday overseas like Thelma has. For me that’s a buzz.

Brother boy snake man with his first paycheque went and bought a lawnmower, I mean it’s little things like that. A fella on this project that was sleeping in caravan parks because he had no money has gone from living in a tent to paying off all his debts and now he’s got a rental. It’s just little things like that that really make a big difference, it’s a buzz” says Shackleton.

RAW Recruitment was established in Victoria, 2013

by Christian Gaylard, Allan Jones and Robbie Peden to provide group training and employment services for Aboriginal job seekers in the construction industry. In line with the ‘Close the Gap’ initiative, RAW aims to reduce Aboriginal disadvantage by engaging men and women through sport and community and assisting them into sustainable employment.

Thelma Norris, a gatekeeper for RAW, adds “It’ll be two years in October that I’ve been in the construction industry. It’s helped me pay off my car and all my debts. I’ve taken my kids overseas twice and now I’m saving for a deposit on a house.”

it’s a bit quieter with about 25 indigenous people working on gates, spotting, working with trains and stuff like that.”

There’s opportunities for all members, indigenous or no, through the CFMEU Education and Training Unit. Unit manager Anne Duggan says:

“Us blackfellas, we’re like one big family. Even if people come here from Western Australia or the Northern Territory and come on this site, they’re like my sisters now. We’ve become very The CFMEU caught up with Joel (Shacks) Shackleton close and I just believe that all of us blackfellas have the same common interests in looking out from RAW at the Sky Rail site in Carnegie where for each other.” they’re just finishing off 11 km of elevated rail to eliminate some high-risk rail crossings.

As unionists we are all about the collective, Shackleton said, “At the peak we had 78 indigenous sticking up for minorities or the hard done by. kids working here, a few elders, some women, and Shacks wants to see young workers increase their skills to better secure employment. young men. We’ve got the trains running now so

“Before I started in construction I was a bit off the rails, I got in a bit of trouble when I was younger.

I sort of got the sack from work for mucking up and then I met Christian Gaylard from RAW and he got me a start with the ETU as an apprentice electrician. I did nine years with one company before I was made redundant. Then Christian told me he was about to start a company (RAW) and it’s like it was just meant to happen. Now I work with my family, all the brother boys and the sister girls, and I come to work happy every day.”

SPRING 2018

“ALL CFMEU MEMBERS CAN REGISTER FOR FREE COURSES AT THE TRAINING UNIT. SO IF YOU’RE IN BETWEEN JOBS OR YOU HAVE A BIT OF DOWNTIME MAYBE IT’S TIME TO UP SKILL”

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Gordon Legal to help the fight back

By: Peter Gordon

FOR TOO LONG, WORKING AUSTRALIANS AND UNIONS IN THIS COUNTRY HAVE BEEN UNDER ATTACK BY ANTI-WORKER GOVERNMENTS AND THEIR MATES IN CORPORATE AUSTRALIA. As the saying goes, the Devil has many faces, but none can be seen more clearly than the Liberal Government’s assault on unions through their Trade Union Royal Commission.

The Commission was nothing more than a taxpayerfunded, ideological witch hunt, and Gordon Legal, which I established in 2010, was proud to represent the ACTU in its application to have Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon step down in 2015.

Earlier this year we relaunched Gordon Legal as a new full-service labour law firm which puts people first and business second.

At Gordon Legal I’ve brought together the finest lawyers in Australia who share our values, will fight for working people and have decades of experience winning hard cases for everyday people.

We have fought for the CFMEU before, and we will do it again.

We all saw what happened when the CFMEU’s John Setka and Shaun Reardon were dragged in front of the courts on trumped-up charges stemming from the Royal Commission.

Gordon Legal was proud to represent John and Shaun to beat that case, and show it for the anti-union attack that it was.

And we are proud now to be the law firm of choice for the Victorian-Tasmanian Construction Branch of the CFMEU. The CFMEU is one of the most important unions in the country and it is a privilege to represent the union and its members who have built our cities and fought to win the rights and living standards Australians have today.

Your union works tirelessly for its members and fights to ensure they come home from work safely every day, and at Gordon Legal we look forward to continuing to help you in this fight.

There is a lot of fighting to do.

Make no mistake, there are extreme anti-worker and anti-union forces in this country hell-bent on crushing trade unions, on squeezing workers, on keeping wages low.

At Gordon Legal we will fight alongside the CFMEU and its members to repel these forces and send a message that you can’t bully everyday Australians.

I established Gordon Legal because I wanted to help working people who had been pushed around by big business, treated unfairly and suffered because of it.

At Gordon Legal, we will help you fight back.

Peter Gordon is the Senior Partner at Gordon Legal To find out more about Gordon Legal, visit:

www.gordonlegal.com.au

Notice to Members Change of Legal Services I wish to inform you that after a prolonged period of review, and after due consideration, the CFMEU Executive of the Construction and General Division, VIC/TAS Branch, have decided to move our legal services to Gordon Legal.

Gordon Legal, founded by Peter Gordon, Senior Partner, is a full service labour law firm in Victoria, providing members with access to legal advice across Personal Injury Law and Personal & Commercial Law, with expert lawyers in the following key areas: • Workers Compensation •

TAC claims

•

Public Liability Claims

•

Medical Negligence Claims

•

Asbestos Claims

• •

Industrial & Employment Law Family Law

•

Criminal Defence

•

Commercial Litigation

•

Wills and Estates

Gordon Legal has decades of experience fighting for working people.

Members with existing files with Slater & Gordon may choose to remain with Slater & Gordon until the completion of their matter.

However, members who currently have their matters with Slater & Gordon may wish to transfer their file to Gordon Legal.

Should you choose to transfer your matter to Gordon Legal, they will ensure

• • •

Your matter is handled by one of their expert lawyers

that:

It is at no additional cost to you

There is no disruption or delay in the progression of your matter

A hotline for CFMEU members has been established to arrange the smooth transition of your file, should you choose to move your file.

Please contact the Gordon Legal team directly on 0477 444 227, to answer any of your queries and/or to assist with the transfer of your matter.

“SUPERANNUATION IS NO LONGER A PREROGATIVE OF THE RICH; IT’S A RIGHT, NO LONGER A PRIVILEGE.” MAVIS ROBERTSON From the toughest construction worker to the most pugnacious right-wing politician, Mavis Robertson was a force to be reckoned with. A tenacious negotiator on behalf of CFMEU members she was in the frontline of the struggle for the right to have superannuation made compulsory -- a right that many workers today take for granted.

Sharp as a tack in both mind and tongue Robertson had a long history of standing up for the working class and progressive causes. She set up the People for Nuclear Disarmament, campaigned against French nuclear tests in the Pacific, equal pay for women, led Palm Sunday peace marches, was a founding member of Emily’s list, the first 58

chair of the Jessie Street Trust, a Eureka Youth leader and campaigned against the Vietnam war and conscription. Five years after the war Robertson would produce a film “Changing the Needle” that documented the struggle of rehabilitating those who had become drug addicts during that conflict. However, it’s as a prominent campaigner for superannuation across the workforce in the 1980s that she will be remembered.

Robertson was appointed to the Order of Australia in 1994.

She was named by Australia’s Human Rights Commission in 1998 among their “50 Great Australians’’. Many are those who are richer today because of Mavis Robertson yet not many know of her.

Those who did might have witnessed her knitting her way through sometimes

complicated and difficult union and workplace meetings. This might have persuaded some she was not paying attention, until out of nowhere she would propose a motion that all would not only agree to but would be most grateful for. Robertson also enjoyed fine food, a good red wine and, on occasions, a social beer at the bar with a bunch of rowdy construction workers.

Robertson joined the superannuation movement in 1984 and by 1991 had become CEO of several construction industry funds. Her belief that all working men and women are entitled to have a financially secure retirement is what motivated her. At a time when superannuation tended to be restricted to middle income and higher income whitecollar males she campaigned for workers across the board, CFMEU WORKER

including the self-employed, to gain access to superannuation. Her association with the Federation of Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association (FEDFA) made up of workers using road building machinery, open cut mines and crane operators (a lot of whom were individuals and selfemployed) reinforced her belief in the need for compulsory super.

In early 1984, the ACTU and the building construction unions undertook a campaign to have an allowance that had been disallowed under the wages guidelines converted to a superannuation payment. This foreshadowed the development of industry superannuation.

Now, 95% of the workforce in Australia is covered by compulsory superannuation.

This is widely admired around the world.

In 2003 in an interview with the National Library of Australia Mavis reflected on her long career as a fighter for workers’ rights and particularly their right to a secure retirement: “It’s not very often that people have the opportunity to work for something that represents a considerable social change in the society that they live in and which is something that benefits the lower paid and part-time workers (who incidentally are all mainly women), and actually makes quite a contribution to the economy of the country,” she said.

In the 70s people were very suspicious of superannuation as many had been persuaded by life agents around the kitchen table to sign up only to find 10 years later they had less money than if they had just put the money in the bank due to fees, charges and trailing commissions.

“When we started out we were mindful that even the most ardent unionist didn’t necessarily think that unions were good organisations for SPRING 2018

looking after their retirement savings so a number of things were done,” she recalled.

able to dictate to each other and both having to work in the interests of members.”

In the beginning employers would contribute $11 for each week worked. Nine of these dollars would go into retirement income stream for the member individually in his or her name, one dollar would go for administration and one dollar would go for insurance.

“This collective strength is a very great strength. No individual worker would have the same possibilities to provide for an extra layer of retirement income on their own as they could collectively,’’ she said.

“BEARING IN MIND THAT VERY LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE IN INDUSTRIES SUCH AS THE BUILDING INDUSTRY HAD NO INSURANCE AND YET IT WAS A HIGH RISK INDUSTRY THIS WAS QUITE AN IMPORTANT FACTOR. IT SEEMS STRANGE NOW BUT AT THAT TIME I BELIEVE THAT ONE DOLLAR A WEEK BOUGHT A $25,000 LIFE COVER BUT FOR MANY PEOPLE THAT WAS AN EXTRAORDINARY THING - IT MEANT THAT [IF ACCIDENTS OCCURRED] THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO SELL UP THE HOUSE AND IT OFTEN MEANT THEY COULD PAY OFF THEIR MORTGAGE.”

“People that have been service providers to the wealthy who have always had superannuation often made comments about how ridiculous the sums were that we were putting into these retirement accounts for our members and how it would never really solve anything and probably some of them would end up with only 50 or $60,000 so it became one of my favourite lines with those people to say, ‘I invite you just to go and take an opinion poll in the streets and ask people would they rather have nothing or would they rather have $50,000?’

“This would sometimes make those people come to an understanding of what was really happening; although still under their skin I think is not a full understanding of the [benefits of the] compulsory system.”

“One of the first attacks on industry superannuation came from John Howard who said how shocking it was that more than 10% of money was going into administration…

To this day conservatives still tend to [decry] industry funds which are joint trustees which means that half of the trustees, are drawn from the employer organisations and half are drawn from sponsoring unions with neither side being 59

THE HUMAN COST OF THE FIFA WORLD CUP

BWI - BUILDING WOODWORKERS INTERNATIONAL

THIS GUY CAME UP WITH AN IDEA OF A SOLAR POWERED COOLING HELMET. HE DIDN'T ADMIT IT BUT WE COULD READ BETWEEN THE LINES THAT IT WAS DESIGNED SO THEY COULD KEEP PEOPLE WORKING THROUGH THE HOTTEST PART OF THE DAY. 60

CFMEU WORKER

If you’ve ever wondered what life would be like without unions just take a look at Qatar.

In the last issue of the CFMEU journal we briefly spoke about the CFMEU’s affiliation with Building Woodworkers International (BWI) and the construction of the stadiums and facilities in Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. CFMEU Victorian Official Alex Tadic and National Assistant Secretary Nigel Davies have returned home with some pretty damning things to say about the multinational companies and the Qatari government involved in the construction of these venues and infrastructure.

Qatar is home to some of the richest yet most morally bankrupt developers in the world. Its heavily exploited international workforce is made up of some of the poorest people in the world, predominantly from India, Bangladesh and Nepal. They come into the country under the “Kafala” system which is really just a polite term for slavery. They take home around AU$200 a week and are forced to work six days a week in temperatures in excess of 50°C for ten to twelve hours a day.

Davies says: “Workers are recruited from these poorer countries and promised in some cases double or triple the amount they will actually get and are offered a flight home once a year to visit family. But on arrival in Qatar their passports are taken away from them for ‘safekeeping’, or so they say, and if you don't have a passport or a means of identification you are effectively locked up because you can't go anywhere without a passport. The only place they can go is on the bus to work or on the bus home at night. That's their life and although they are told they can go home in 12 months time the reality is we met people that hadn't been home for four years.”

The Qatari government has established a special committee to oversee the building of some of the more high profile stadiums after the successful ‘Red Card for FIFA’ campaign by the BWI to ensure better working conditions. However these stadiums only account for a fraction of the FIFA World Cup construction work currently in progress. This special committee is made up of delegates with safety knowledge from around the world but predominantly from Britain - with British Occupational Health & Safety laws that are loosely, very loosely, followed in Qatar.

The BWI are advisors to the special committee.

Davies says: “To be honest with you, Alex and I went there and they laid out everything bar the red carpet for us. The jobs were in a fairly good state keeping in mind the stadiums we were looking at were only about 3% of the construction going on. Although we did feel it was all a bit staged for us we did manage to give them a touch up in certain areas, but the root of the problem in Qatar is the other 97% of infrastructure currently underway. When we spoke to workers on stadium projects all the guys

SPRING 2018

loved it because the conditions and wages were a lot better than they are on the other sites associated with the FIFA World Cup and that's the problem.”

BWI had been trying to get into Qatar for a long time but it wasn't until an English worker got killed in one of the stadiums that it blew up in the media. In damage control the Qatari government set up the special committee to address the building of stadiums only so they could sell the product to the world as being safe and ethical.

Alex Tadic notes: “It regularly gets up over 50°C during the day so they often stop working at 11 o'clock in the morning until 3 o'clock in the afternoon but only when it hits 54°C. This guy came up with an idea of a solar powered cooling helmet. He didn't admit it, but we could read between the lines that it was designed so they could keep people working through the hottest part of the day. We actually brought one home with us. They have a gel liner that you put in the fridge for a couple of hours - it goes solid and then you fit it in your hat which is never going to work because it'll just be top-heavy, so when you bend over it just falls off.”

“Driving down the freeway with one of the Yankee guys working on the special committee we noticed the light poles on the side of the road lit up like Christmas trees with all these different colours and Arabic writing. He told us that he couldn't confirm it, but he estimated that each pole cost around $1 million and these freeways just go for kilometres and kilometres. It was just incredibly overwhelming to see the contrast between how much money was being spent on building infrastructure with such a heavily exploited and underpaid workforce.”

However the reality is that in four or five years these workers can make enough money to keep their whole family going for 10 years in their countries of origin so these are the sacrifices that they are prepared to make.

Davies says, “The bottom line is these guys are coming from poorer nations so the $200 they make a week in Qatar is feeding not only their families but their family’s families the entire time. And in many cases they are the only providers so they are committed to the job.”

Apart from the stifling heat, the sandstorms and dust that is absolutely everywhere and in everything, these international workers may go home for two weeks a year and be happy to return. Before they do they will be subject to a thorough medical examination on arrival and departure for silicosis, until inevitably one day they will be unfit to work at which point they will no longer be required and will not be compensated in any way.

From a country that has among the richest deposits of gas and oil in the world to fund its hunger for building, it's a shame they don't use some of this wealth to improve working conditions, and show more respect for their workers.

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New ACTU President Michele O’Neil has spent 30 years fighting to change the rules for textile, clothing and footwear workers. Now she’s taking that fight to a bigger stage.

Michele fought – and won – in workplaces where insecure work, wage theft, outsourcing, sham contracting and labour hire were rife.

Most of the workers Michele represented were women, often migrant women working in low-paid jobs, and the textile industry has been at the forefront of globalisation – a laboratory for capital to test new ways to take power from working people. “These things are now normal for almost every worker – we see it with contract teachers and nurses whose skill and experience have been progressively undermined and we see it in the slave-like conditions of our agricultural workers, and the rampant wage theft in hospitality and retail industries.

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“In my industries we changed the rules to win supply chain transparency – obligations for those brands at the top for the conditions of the workers at the bottom and rights for unions to enter workplaces without notice.

“These are some of the things we need in the rest of our workplaces.”

DYNAMIC DUO

Elected at the ACTU national congress, O’Neil follows on from Ged Kearney as ACTU President. Kearney won the Federal seat of Batman – since re-named Cooper – at a byelection in March.

Alongside Secretary Sally McManus, O’Neil will lead the movement for change and fight inequality, corporate greed, privatisation, and the decimation of public and community services. Together, Sally and Michele will spearhead our movement’s efforts to win fair pay, more secure jobs and better lives for working people.

WORKING CLASS

Michele remembers her mother working as a waitress at the

Parliament House dining room in Canberra.

“I remember very clearly her coming home and telling me that you can tell what sort of person a politician was by how well they treated the wait staff. That stayed with me.”

Michele’s passion for social justice began early. Her parents took the family to the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra when she was 10. She went to rallies and marches as a teenager to free Nelson Mandela from jail in South Africa.

#METOO

She joined her union on the first day of her first after-school job as a waitress in Canberra at CFMEU WORKER

14. It was the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous union – United Voice today.

O’Neil’s experiences at that job made a lasting impression on her. She was sexually harassed by her supervisor who would take her into the storeroom and try to kiss her. Customers also tried to pinch her and proposition her. Michele says she learned a lot about the power of the collective. When she told the older women working alongside her what had happened the union delegate and other members stood up with her and made sure she was safe.

“It was an early lesson in collective power,” Michele says.

BASIC FAIRNESS Among her wins are landmark legislative changes in 2012 that mean workers in her industry – whether they worked from home, on in a factory – are entitled to the same minimum pay and conditions as employees.

“People deserve to be paid the same for doing the same work – that’s just basic fairness,” she says. “We won that in my industry, but people all across the country still need this basic principle.

Michele is energised and ready for the challenges that a national leadership role for the union movement brings.

“I’m passionate about getting rid of the Morrison Government.

Their attacks on working people and unions and their bias toward big business and the banks is something Australians can no longer afford,” she says.

“I have spent my life fighting for a better country and a better world. Along the way I’ve learned so many things – about resilience, about change and about solidarity.

“I know that when working people come together and act as one, no force in the world can stop us.”

FROM THE SHOP FLOOR Michele’s teenage years saw her work in restaurants, bars and clubs, as well as becoming active in social justice campaigns – from the anti-apartheid movement, to land rights and affordable housing campaigns.

In her 20s she became the head of the National Youth Coalition for Housing, addressing youth homelessness.

She also worked sewing labels on jumpers and running a bank of knitting machines, before taking a position with the then Clothing and Allied Trades Union. “I understood what it was like to be a lowpaid worker, I’d pretty much worked in low-paid, casual and insecure jobs my whole life,” she says.

O’Neil went on to work for the TCFUA as an organizer, a campaigner, a negotiator, and then a state and national secretary.

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IN THE BIGGEST MELBOURNE RALLY FOR YEARS, 150,000 PEOPLE TOOK TO THE STREETS TO SAY “CHANGE THE RULES!” That’s 150,000 people: • Supporting CFMEU leaders John Setka and Shaun Reardon facing trumped-up charges in court – the charges were dropped just a week later.

• Calling for more secure jobs, better pay and workers rights.

BEHIND T HE SCENES

INDIA BAXT ER JUNIOR INDUSTRIAL OFFICER

So Indy, what do you do for the CFMEU? I am a junior industrial officer, I assist with members who have issues with being terminated from their job, and I work with the wage claims department as well, if someone’s being underpaid by their employer I’ll help. Basically any issues that an employee or member has with their employment.

When did your CFMEU career first start out?

What is your favourite food?

I love a good rice paper roll, I just love food in general.

If you could travel somewhere, where would you like to travel?

I started here 5 years ago, the CFMEU have a traineeship for people who haven’t worked in an office environment. I did that for 12 months working in all the different departments. From there I took over a maternity relief position at the legal reception desk for two years and then moved into the role I am doing now.

I’m a big travel fanatic, I’ve done a bit of travelling already. I would love to go to Spain and I want to see Morocco. I haven’t been anywhere in Scandinavia either, I really just want to go everywhere.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your job?

I do! I barrack for Melbourne, and thank god were doing a little bit better than what we have been!

I love the face to face contact with the members, I like to be able to deal with members one on one 68

because no one else is looking out for them, I like that we have the opportunity to look out for them and do what we can.

Ok so lucky last question, do you barrack for any footy teams?

CFMEU WORKER

AT THE CFMEU MARK MCMILLAN

DESK ORGANISER

What’s a day like at the desk with Mark?

So I turn the computer and the phones on ready for seven o’clock. It can start off with the shop stewards or the organisers ringing in with questions or it can also be the members ringing up about their pay and so forth, it’s answering a lot of industrial and a lot of general inquiries. It can be as simple as checking financial members or more complex stuff which might involve awards, EBAs, agreements, entitlements, pay, and wages.

How long have you been working for the CFMEU? If you’re asking about my official role, that’s been over 9 years but I started as a shop steward in 1995. I’ve always been in the construction industry, I’ve worked in the construction industry my whole working life, as a multi skilled labourer I’ve been on cranes, plant machinery, fought fires, and built airstrips, roads, dams, the list is endless.

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What would you say is the most rewarding part of your job?

Ensuring that people get their entitlements, seeing members happy that they’re getting what they’re entitled to, making sure they haven’t been ripped off. You don’t quite get a lot of thanks in that regard but you know they’re going to get what they deserve or that you’ve given them enough information for them to go back to their employer.

If you could go on a holiday right now where would you travel to?

The Philippines!

Who do you barrack for in the footy?

Essendon.

If you could sit down with anyone in the world past or present for dinner, who would it be?

That’s a good question! I’ve got no one who stands out, I’d be happy to talk to anyone.

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THE

LIVING HERITAGE PROJECT

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CFMEU WORKER

On the corner of Lygon and Victoria streets in Carlton stands the oldest working trade union building in the world, Trades Hall, opened in 1859.

There’s still people working in here in offices and they're still doing the work for unions, it's just fantastic and it’s a real privilege to be involved with it.”

This was less than a decade after the Eureka Rebellion in which workers had protested with their own blood over the imposition of mining license fees, and just a few years after stonemasons had walked off the job at Melbourne University in the fight for the eighthour day.

The Living Heritage Project Officer Liz Beattie says: “Our ambition for this building is to bring it back to its former glory so that young people for generations to come can understand that the people who set up the eight-hour committee had a real vision for the future. They had a vision not just for the next ten years but for hundreds of years: that the working men and women of Australia should be equal to any of the ruling class.”

The entire Trades Hall construction was funded by workers and built to support the trade union movement well into the future.

A place for workers to meet, organise and fight for safer and fairer conditions, it would be built in similar style to the then new Victorian parliament buildings nearby. Unionists at the time even referred to the new Trades Hall as ‘the worker’s parliament’.

Now under way is stage one of ‘The Living Heritage Project’ to restore and refurbish parts of the Trades Hall.

Luke Hilakari, secretary of the Trades Hall Council reflects on the building’s rich history: “So, the conscription debate was held and fought here, the announcement of the end of World War II was done here as well. If we also look at things like forming the first Parliament, forming the Australian Labor Party, that was all done right here with discussions at Trades Hall.”

“Important moments in time, such as the Vietnam debates to marches around the Iraq war, to debates and winning the ‘We are union marriage equality campaign’, again Trades Hall has been the hub of activism in this state.”

CFMEU shop steward Blackie is proudly part of the restoration.

“I’m really enjoying seeing the time and devotion that has been spent by workers who built Trades Hall in an era when everything was built with hand tools only. When we pull stuff out that's been tacked on we find all the original works and the workmanship is absolutely fantastic. “Whenever they built anything at Trades Hall years ago, not recently but years ago, they did a really good job with first-class tradesmen and of course it was built for unions by unionists.”

“To come to work here of a morning you know you just feel part of it and it's a live building.

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“Everything about this building talks about the pride of unionists at the time and the vision that they had. So a lot of these young men that had come from England, they were Chartists and they came to Australia because they wanted to be part of and create a better working class than they had in England.”

Blackie adds an interesting note about the eight-hour day monument that currently sits across the road: “Apparently that was outside Parliament House originally. I've been told conservatives at the time didn't like it so they got it removed from outside of Parliament House because when they were walking out the doors they probably couldn't stand to look at it.”

It’s going to take many years to finish, but in the end Hilakari says: “When you come in there will be a big museum piece so there will be a mezzanine level built like a sort of old Greek or Roman debating theatre, and then on the outside of that you will be able to see around twenty exhibitions of all the stuff that will make you so proud.”

“There will be on display a piece of the Eureka flag. We’re talking to Zelda D’Aprano’s family to see if we can get a link of the chain from 1969, when she locked herself against the Melbourne Commonwealth Building to protest for equal pay for women. We are talking to the CFMEU right now about the Westgate Bridge disaster to see if we can get a piece of that old Westgate Bridge and tell that important story.”

“So if you bring people here you’ll be able walk around and get a sense of our history and feel proud. You will see the old murals and then also the campaigns that we’re doing into the future.”

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WITH MATT SEADON WELL SPRING IS FINALLY HERE! AS WE’RE ALL STILL TRYING TO THAW OUT AFTER WHAT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN AN ENDLESS COLD AND WINDY WINTER, OUR THOUGHTS CAN NOW START TO DRIFT TO WARM WEATHER AND SOLID LOCAL FISHING. Most would know the snapper are due to hit the bays any week now and oh how we are longing for the huge lines at the boat ramps, water rage, spring winds, the cost of pilchards hitting record highs on the stock-market … and yeah, watching every boat around you catch while you end up with another doughnut and the grim thought of having to tell the better half it’s fish and chip Friday from the local again.

WELL MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, IT’S TIME TO CHANGE IT UP.

All most of us do over winter is go to work in the dark and get home in the dark with not a lot in between. Only the fanatic has been fishing, so there must be a little bit of money in the kitty and hopefully some brownie points saved up from all the work around the house you’ve done due to the crappy weather. It’s time to get out of dodge!

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If you know what you’re doing Victoria is a decent fishery, but if you’ve ever thought about sampling what the rest of the country has to offer then maybe now is the time. A personal favourite of mine is the NT. The fishing up there is incredible, as is the weather this time of year.

September leading into October is the back end of the Dry leading into the Buildup.

Fishing options are almost endless, but in my opinion nothing beats chasing the iconic Barramundi. The thrill of that first hit and watching the fish jump trying to spit your lure is incredible.

CFMEU WORKER

Fishing in a new state and for a new species, I’d recommend looking for a good charter operator but do your research first. I’d almost guarantee whatever building site your working on there will be someone who has had an amazing trip up north, so pick their brain and get as much info as you can before booking something. If you’ve ever dreamed of fishing for Barra my advice to you is DO IT!

THE PLUG Scotty is a CFMEU member and rigger who, along with a mate, has been running a number of fishing competitions for a few years now. In October this year they are holding a Flatty comp that will stretch from Victoria all the way up to Queensland.

With over $10,000 in prizes it’s sure to be well attended. For more info you can check them out at reelitinflatheadchallenge.com

There are junior and open age divisions as well as state champions and an overall title winner.

The competition allows you to fish anywhere you want, so if you know where there are a few big lizards hiding it may be worth a look.

TIGHT LINES, STAY SAFE AND WORK TO LIVE DON’T LIVE TO WORK.

OF THE Send in photos of your best catch in your CFMEU fishing gear and you could feature in the next magazine and on our Facebook page! Send photos in a message to the CFMEU Vic-Tas Facebook page: facebook.com/CFMEUVic Or, email to: viccomms@cfmeu.org

SPRING 2018

73

Cbus insurance cover is built for your industry.

Benefits of Cbus cover: Premiums Premiums are paid out of your super account, not your after-tax pay.

We pay legitimate claims In 2016/2017 Cbus paid out over $227 million in insured benefits.

Total and Permanent Disablement cover Provides a lump-sum benefit if you’re unlikely to ever work again due to illness or injury.

Death Cover Provides a benefit payment, on top of your super balance, if you die, or are diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Cover suited to you We understand your industry and the cover you need. Cbus covers members for higher risk conditions such as working with heights.

Do you have enough cover?

Just ask Cbus.

For advice about insurance, speak to one of our qualified financial advisers. This service is available to Cbus members at no extra cost.

Call 1300 361 784 Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm AEST Email advice@cbussuper.com.au Visit www.cbussuper.com.au

This information is about Cbus. It doesn’t take into account your specific needs, so you should look at your own financial position, objectives and requirements before making any financial decisions. Read the relevant Cbus Product Disclosure Statement and Insurance Handbook prior to making any decisions. Call 1300 361 784 or visit www.cbussuper.com.au for a copy. Cbus’ Trustee: United Super Pty Ltd ABN 46 006 261 623 AFSL 233792 Cbus ABN 75 493 363 262.

CFMEU Members help out war widow

The biggest hearts are in our members’ chests.

“CFMEU members doing it for Peggy!” “CFMEU members arranged to help out a 98 year old war widow with a new concrete path so she can get around without worrying about trip hazards. A big thanks to Buxton, Caelli & CFMEU members!”

CLASSIFIED ADS

76

CFMEU WORKER

CLASSIFIED ADS

Cleanworx Services Pty Ltd

MELBOURNE OFFICE:

4A Bond Street Caulfield North, Vic. 3161

Ph: 0402 925 894 www.cleanworx.com.au

220 Normanby Avenue Thornbury, Vic. 3071 Mobile:

0412 520 863

2 Tennyson Street Williamstown, Victoria, 3016 P.O. Box 183, Altona North Victoria 3025 P: 03 9397 8350 F: 03 9399 8083 www.pbdemoasb.com.au

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Stahmers Carpets P/L 140 years of knowledge & understanding in the floor covering industry 36 Christensen Street, Moorabbin, Vic. 3189

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Cannard Hicks Carpentry Commercial carpentry specialist Phone:

Ph: (03) 9555 5902

m 0418 578 900 e harrisconstructions@live.com.au

0408 514 729 Victoria

CW 24/2

Wayne Roller Shutters P/L 4 Kororoit Court Kurunjang 3337

Ph: 8746 4232

Fax: 8746 4216

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Proud Supporter of the CFMEU

SG Formwork Pty Ltd

– Class A – All types of asbestos

262 Salmon Street Port Melbourne, Vic. 3207

Ph: (03) 9646 2188

Friable and Non-Friable Phone: 0433 147 734 Victoria

CW 24/2

W M Fix Pty Ltd

Ph: 03 9357 6387 mail@qasteelfixing.com.au VICTORIA

CW 24/2

Supporting the CFMEU

Caelli (Vic) Constructions

Tel: (03) 9305 7733

Phone: 0417 599 809 CW 24/2

www.caelli.com.au CW 24/2

0414 345 917

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Raven Scaffolds For all your scaffolding solutions Proudly supporting CFMEU

CW 24/2

Express Interiors Pty Ltd

320 Hume Highway Craigieburn, Vic 3064

1/41 Bent Street Bundoora, Vic. 3083

ORACLE STRUCTURES PTY LTD projects@oraclestructure.com.au

Pty Ltd

ALUMINIUM WINDOW INSTALLATIONS

SPRING 2018

44 Sarah Street Campbellfied, Vic. 3061

38 Brindley Street Dandenong Sth Vic. 3175 Phone: 9359 3880 Web: ravenscaffolds.com.au

CW 24/2

Ph: (03) 9793 9522 CW 24/2

77

CLASSIFIED ADS

Phone: 0414 895 323

CW 24/2

H Melbournes most efficient commercial masonry company Proud to support the CFMEU www.polarisgroupaustralia.com.au CW 24/2

3/29 Cameron Street, Brunswick Vic E: info@xproconstructions.com.au P: 03 9383 5960 F: 03 9386 5074

H Purple Hills Painting H Painting & Decorating

1300 999 747 www.purplehills.com.au CW 24/2

Trident Toilet Partitions Pty Ltd Architects for Australia’s biggest names choose Trident in Victoria

VICTORIA

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Gol Constructions & Investment Pty Ltd

H Commercial Building & Residential Formwork

M: 0411 158 304

1/27 Mareno Road, Tullamarine, Vic. 3043

E: contact@golconstructions.com www.golconstructions.com

Phone: (03) 9338 4833 CW 24/2

Ph. 9219 2000 Fax. 9219 2099

217-235 Rex Rd Campbellfield, 3061

www.gjames.com

MATIC PLASTERING P/L

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Glass Products

Manufacturers of: • Laminated Glass • Toughened Glass • Toughened Laminated Glass • Insulated Glass Units • Diptech printed Glass Products

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Julian McCarthy Landscapes Pty Ltd

18 Reema Boulevarde, Endeavor Hills, Vic. 3802 Ph/Fax (03) 9708 0559 Mob: 0401 681 748

INDEPENDENT CRANES PTY LTD 108 Hume Highway Somerton, Vic. 3062

1/ 8a Railway Avenue, Oakleigh, Vic 3166

Ph: 03 9308 8111

Ph: (03) 9543 9821 CW 24/2

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OUTSTANDING PLASTERING PTY LTD

Straightline Contractors Pty Ltd

★ Specialising in Commercial & Residential

16-18 Sunshine St, Campbellfield, Vic. 3061

Phone: (03) 9359 3266

Ph: 1300 083 817 CW 24/2

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CFMEU WORKER

CLASSIFIED ADS

LANDSCAPE PLUS

★ quality commercial landscapes & civil construction projects CARDABUILT CONSTRUCTION PTY LTD COMMERCIAL FORMWORKERS PHONE: 0400 988 692

34 Glenvale Cres, Mulgrave, Vic. 3170

Ph: 03 9562 0659 www.landscapeplus.com.au

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PO Box 942, Williamstown, Vic. 3016

PO Box 299, Ivanhoe 3079 P: 9455 1990 | F: 9455 1980 | M: 0404 446 633 Email: vlad@ccserv.com.au

Ph: 0400 150 580

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E: admin@llinstallations.com.au Commercial building construction & joinery installations

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Northern Masonry Concreting, Formwork & General Building Contractors 344 Mascoma Street, Strathmore, Vic. 3041

Ph: 0418 354 764 CW 24/2

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PTY LTD

Manufacturers of quality window furnishings 65 Assembly Dve, Tullamarine, Vic. 3043

Phone: (03) 9330 1577

Geelong Handrail PTY LTD 21 Tarkin Court, Bell Park, Vic. 3215

Ph: 03 5278 4568 Mobile: 0430 505 562

E: geelonghandrail@yahoo.com

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SHOT AL CONSTRUCTIONS PTY LTD Are proud to support the CFMEU CW 24/2

Ph: (03) 9308 5311

0412 471 956

Fax: (03) 9308 5711 CW 24/2

19-23 Paramount Road, West Footscray, Vic 3012

Unit 3, 10 Princes Hwy, Doveton, Vic. 3177

Ph: 1300 272 635 Fax: 1300 799 089

P: 03 9794 0880 M: 0424 860 000

E: greg.abbonizio@craneliftaust.com.au

www.craneliftaust.com.au

E: onewaysaf@gmail.com W: www.onewayconstructions.com.au

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30 Apollo Drive Hallam, Vic. 3803 Ph: 0415 424 070 www.customclad.com.au

SPRING 2018

Pty Ltd

144 Freight Drive, Somerton VIC 3062

Mobile:

www.citylinescaffolding.com.au

P.R.I. Pty Ltd

Proud to support the CFMEU

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Cityline Scaffolding

Supporting the CFMEU

Custom Clad Pty Ltd

0408 416 758

PO Box 1103, Epping, Vic. 3076

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Corcrete Group Pty Ltd PO Box 313, Fawkner, Vic. 3060

Clifton Formwork (Vic) Pty Ltd

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VERTILUX CORPORATION

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L & Y Commercial

5/121 Fairbairn Road Sunshine, Vic. 30121

0403 060 607 Peter Email: pschafer@priptyltd.com CW 24/2

Apprentices for hire for the time you require!

147 Westall Road Clayton South, Vic. 3169

Ph: (03) 9546 2229 Fax: (03) 9546 2223

www.lnycommercial.com E: info@lnycommercial.com CW 24/2

Most Building Trades Covered Tasmanian Building Group Apprenticeship Scheme 175 Campbell Street, Hobart Ph 6234 3844 Fax 6234 3775 CW 24/2

79

CLASSIFIED ADS

80

CFMEU WORKER

CLASSIFIED ADS

Pty Ltd

Nemo Carpentry Services Pty Ltd

Asbestos treatment & safe removal of hazardous materials

COMMERCIAL CARPENTERS

Star Cleaning Services

www.starcleaningservice.com.au

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Mob: 0412 377 528

LIQUIDBOND

Domestic & Commercial Painting Facade Repairs

266/585 Little Collins Street Melbourne, Vic. 3000

0421 622 166 - 0432 287 123

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36 Berwick Road, Campbellfield, Vic. 3061 P: (03) 9357 0000 F: (03) 9357 0352 Email: stuart@aywoncarpets.com.au

Mob: 0401 498 988 Ph: (03) 9793 4737 CW 24/2

Specialise in Concrete Formwork P.O. Box 2129, Ringwood North, Vic. 3134 CW 24/2

Mob: 0419 002 154 or 0425 830 773 Email: renee@optulla.com.au

Supporting the CFMEU

ADCO Constructions Vic. Pty Ltd

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Schiavello Construction

9 & 13/209 Hyde St, Yarraville, Vic. 3013

1 Sharps Road Tullamarine, Vic. 3043

M: 0411 482 438 Steph

Ph: (03) 9330 8888

E: admin@complexfacade.com.au

Level 9, 75 Dorcas Street South Melbourne, Vic. 3205

PO Box 2187, Geelong, Vic. 3220 Mobile: 0412 545 164

Phone: 03 9832 1400

Email: kevin@danayneceilings.com.au

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LIVING LANDSCAPES PTY LTD

7/38 Camberwell Road, Hawthorn East, Vic. 3123

M: 0412 324 877

Email: livinglandscape@optusnet.com.au

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IND WINDOW FABRICATIONS PTY LTD 3 Ramage Street, Bayswater, Vic. 3153 Phone: (03)

9729 0411

Fax: (03) 9330 8899

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A Grade Crane Hire Pty Ltd

(Vic) Pty Ltd

Danayne Ceilings Pty Ltd

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Supporting the CFMEU

Complex Facade Install Pty Ltd

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Oak Park Tullamarine Pty Ltd

www.liquidbond.com.auCW 24/2

AYWON CARPET CONTRACTORS PTY LTD

29-31 Dingley Ave, Dandenong, Vic. 3175

Email: admin@viccivil.com

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Luxplus Pty Ltd t/as

Burcon (Vic) Pty Ltd

Specialings in Commercial & Maintenance Cleaning

M: 0404 876 938

GIVE BLOOD

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50 years combined experience in the crane hire industry “Hook up with the A-Team” PO Box 55, Panton Hill 3759 VIC richard@agradecranehire.com.au Richard 0407 115 780 - Wayne 0413 115 162 www.agradecranehire.com.au CW 24/2

Proud to Support Occupational Health & Safety on the Workplace & The Royal Children’s Hospital

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Ph: (03) 8768 8989 CW 24/2

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SLH Industries

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COMMERCIAL, INDUSTRIAL & RETAIL BUILDERS & CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT MABEN GROUP PTY LTD ABN 63 255 276 365

Post Tensioning & Suspended Concrete Slab Design Contractors T: (03) 9702 4557 W: www.auspt.net.au E: tenders@auspt.net.au

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22 Blackwood Street North Melbourne Victoria 3051 t 03 9329 2166 f 03 9329 2188 CW 24/2

FALL PROTECTION & TEMPORARY GUARDRAIL SYSTEMS FOR COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRIAL BUILDING SITES.

(03) 8773 7255

industrialsales.vic@scopesafety.com.au

SPRING 2018

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81

YOUR WAGES

EBA WAGE RATES ONSITE 36-HOUR WEEK: Your Union EBA brings increases in wages, allowances, superannuation and Incolink contributions.

Be paid-up and proud, it’s worth it!

For sector EBAs see vic.cfmeu.org.au/wages (civil, contract scaffold, precast, traffic control, demolition, apprentices, mobile cranes, steel erection, shop fitting)

RATE PER HOUR

RATE PER WEEK

WEEKLY PRO-RATA ANNUAL LEAVE

WEEKLY PRO-RATA A/ L LOADING

$45.51

$1,638.36

$126.03

$25.08

Painter – new work

$44.49

$1,601.64

$123.20

$24.59

Painter – re-paint

$44.44

$1,599.84

$123.06

$24.57

Marker/Setter-out, Letter Cutter

$47.38

$1,705.68

$131.21

$25.99

Signwriter, Roof-tiler

$46.38

$1,669.68

$128.44

$25.51

$49.16

$1,769.76

$136.14

$26.85

$44.24

$1,592.64

$122.51

$24.47

$42.78

$1,540.08

$118.47

$23.76

$41.46

$1,492.56

$114.81

$23.12

Operator and Dogman/Crane hands

$51.53

$1,855.08

$142.70

$28.00

Trainee Dogman/Crane hand (fixed cranes)

$47.92

$1,725.12

$132.70

$26.25

(36 HOUR WEEK)

Tradespersons CW3 - 100% Carpenter/Joiner, Tile-layer, Stonemason, Artificial Stoneworker Plasterer, Marble & Slate-worker, Cladding Fixer, Bricklayer

CW4 - 105%

CW5 - 110% Special Class Tradesperson: Carver * All Rates include Tool Allowance

Labourers GRADE 1 - CW3 - 100% Rigger/Dogman, Sign industry worker, Concrete pump operator

GRADE 2 - CW2 - 96% Scaffolder, Hoist/Winch Driver Steel Fixer, Concrete Finisher

GRADE 3 - CW1 - 92.4% Trades Labourer, Concrete Gang, Hoseman, Jack Hammerman, Concrete Cutting Machine Operator

Crane Crews - Building Sites TOWER CRANE CREW - CW7 - 120%

82

CFMEU WORKER

YOUR WAGES

Plant operators PCW7 - 120% - Excavators over 115 tonnes, Crawler Tractors over 350kw, Graders experienced final trim

$50.42

$1,815.12

$139.62

$27.46

PCW6 - 115% - Excavators 65 to 115 tonnes, Wheel & Track Loaders over 300kw, Crawler Tractors 200 to 350kw, Graders final trim, Construction Trucks over 200 tonnes, Tower Cranes

$48.57

$1,748.52

$134.50

$26.57

PCW5 - 110% - Compactors over 200kw, Excavators 25 to 65 tonnes, Wheel & Track Loaders 200 to 300kw, Scrapers over 400kw, Crawler Tractors 100 to 200kw, Graders over 130kw, Construction Trucks 120 to 200 tonnes, Mobile Cranes 15 to 100 tonnes

$46.71

$1,681.56

$129.35

$25.67

PCW4 - 105% - Compactors up to 200kw, Excavators 16 to 25 tonnes, Wheel & Track Loaders 100 to 200kw, Scrapers 300 to 400kw, Crawler Tractors up to 100kw, Graders up to 130kw, Construction Trucks 60 to 120 tonnes, Mobile Cranes up to 15 tonnes

$44.91

$1,616.76

$124.37

$24.79

PCW3 - 100% - Rollers over 10 tonnes, Skid Steer & Backhoe/Loaders over 200kw, Excavators up to 16 tonnes, Wheel & Track Loaders up to 100kw, Scrapers up to 300kw, Construction Trucks 12 to 60 tonnes, Forklift Operators, Winch Drivers & Mobile Hydraulic Platform Operators

$43.12

$1,552.32

$119.41

$23.93

PCW2 - 96% - Rollers 5 to 10 tonnes, Skid Steer & Backhoe/Loaders to 200kw, Construction Trucks up to 12 tonnes

$41.41

$1,490.76

$114.67

$23.10

PCW1 - 92.4% - New Entrant for plant only, Rollers up to 5 tonnes

$39.87

$1,435.32

$110.41

$22.35

Note: If unsure if agreement applies to you, check with the Union for your company sector-specific EBA, e.g. Civil.

Site Allowances

Multi-storey Allowance

The following site allowances apply under CFMEU construction industry enterprise agreements (EBAs) from 1 October 2017.

Start to 15th floor

$0.57 per hour

Floors 16 – 30

$0.68 per hour

Floors 31 – 45

$1.06 per hour

Floors 46 – 60

$1.37 per hour

Floors 61+

$1.68 per hour

New projects Melbourne inner suburbs and shopping centres Projects between $3.0 million and $234.9m: $4.15 per hour.

For projects over $234.9 million, see chart below.

Renovations and refurbishments, Melbourne and inner suburbs: $3.60 per hour.

New projects elsewhere

Site & General Wage Related Allowances Service Core Allowance

$1.50 per hour

First Aid Allowance

Project value $ million

Site allowance $ per hour

$3.0 – 7.9 million

$2.40

$7.9 – 19.5 million

$2.60

$19.5 – 39.2 million

$2.90

$39.2 – 78.3 million

$3.40

$78.3 – 156.6 million

$4.05

$156.6 – 234.9 million

$4.15

$234.9 – 313 million

$4.35

$313 – 469.8 million

$4.50

$469.8 - 655.9 million

$4.60

$655.9 - 873.1 million

$4.70

$873.1 - 1137.7 million

$4.80

$1137.7 - 1396.3 million

$5.20

Overtime meal allowance: $26.46 when required to work overtime for one and a half hours or more on an ordinary working day.

$1396.3 - 1758.3 million

$5.60

Living away from home allowance: $770 per week

For projects above $1758.3 million, there shall be an increment of 10 cents per additional $100m or part thereof.

Minimum qualification

$3.01 per day

Higher qualification

$4.77 per day

EBA Benefits and Allowances Travel allowance: $45.00 per day Superannuation: $215 per week, or 9.5% of ordinary time earnings, whichever higher.

Incolink payments: $78.05 per week paid into Incolink. Income protection, trauma insurance and portable sick leave are also available (paid into Incolink).

Long service leave: 13 weeks after ten years, pro rata after seven years (paid into CoInvest).

Site allowance: Check the CFMEU Allowances Schedule for more information: cfmeu.vic.org.au/wages

As well as a 5% pay rise every year for three-years, all overtime is double-time, fares and travel are up, living away is up, super is up, and meals are up. Stay paid-up and proud, it’s worth it!

SPRING 2018

83

Legal problem?

We’re on your side.

THE CFMEU’S NEW LAWYERS, GORDON LEGAL, HAVE DECADES OF EXPERIENCE ACROSS ALL AREAS OF THE LAW RELEVANT TO CFMEU MEMBERS. WHATEVER YOUR LEGAL NEEDS ARE, THEY CAN HELP:

• Work injury claims • Transport accident claims • Asbestos claims • Medical negligence claims • Injuries in public and private spaces • Superannuation and personal insurance claims • Family law • Criminal defence • Employment and Workplace law • Wills and Estates (including Will disputes) • Professional negligence claims • Commercial law

gordonlegal.com.au Contact the CFMEU on

03 9341 3444 for a referral to Gordon Legal

Peter Gordon Senior Partner