The attacks by the Administration of the CFMEU haven’t stopped since Mark Irving stepped down as Administrator in late April.
Admin is handing over civil construction work, now done by CFMEU members, to the right-wing do-nothing Australian Workers Union.
This will cause the loss of an estimated 5000 jobs for CFMEU members and further weaken the union.
A demarcation list of jobs handed over by Admin is circulating among CFMEU militants.
Albanese is also breaking his own rule on paying for administration from CFMEU funds by allocating $5.3 million from the Budget over two years for Admin’s security (from the underworld).
Irving’s resignation has created a new mood of anger among CFMEU members, particularly in Victoria.
The Administration has become a shambles, with a total of eight well-known resignations, including Irving, former Victorian branch executive officer (EO) Zach Smith, and three other branch EOs over 20 months.
Now the new Administrator, Michael Crosby, has sacked construction co-ordinator Nigel Davies. Davies has broken no law and faces no charges. So much for Admin being about rooting out criminality.
The Age reported, “The move signals the start of a potentially vastly more aggressive phase of union reform.”
Labor is learning that the gene pool of “cleanskin” union officials who are willing to get their hands dirty in the panel-beating of the CFMEU is very small.
Accountability
Victorian members passed two motions demanding transparency and accountability from Admin at what is known as the union “branch meeting” in late April.
Under a democratically elected union leadership the branch meeting acts as a report back to rank-and-file members.
Under Admin, the meeting spreads Admin’s disinformation, with a thin veneer of “old CFMEU faces” working for Admin willing to mask the huge number of staff appointed who are non-construction unionists and ACTU trainers.
One is Michael Crosby, 74, formerly the NSW CFMEU EO, who was appointed Administrator on 22 May. He has been a union official since the age of 25.
He told the media, in his arrogant style, “Construction is not that hard to understand … I have spent a long time reforming unions.”
The Victorian branch is now being run by Matt McGowan, formerly of the university workers’ union NTEU, whose leaked text message to staff said he had allowed the previous Victorian EOs to “retain their titles”.
His wife, Luz Lukin, has been working for Admin since October 2024 as a CFMEU rep on Incolink.
When pressed by members, these “retained” joint Victorian EOs, Lisa Zanatta and Nigel Davies, confirmed that McGowan had stripped them of their delegation authority, which means they can’t approve spending or play a role in hiring.
This should dispel the argument from some CFMEU members that the “old CFMEU faces” working for Admin can “limit the damage”. This is the same bad argument which Zach Smith put to members before his demise.
At the NTEU during COVID, McGowan tried to sell his members a “Jobs Protection Framework” which was a pay cut “to save jobs”. The rank-and-file revolted over that rotten idea.
In February, McGowan was named by Irving as having been appointed as his “Assistant Administrator” with no start date or salary revealed. McGowan’s leaked text revealed he has been working for Admin for at least eight months.
Shed up
One Victorian CFMEU delegate got a motion passed on a city site to “shed up” in protest at Admin—stop work and go into the lunch sheds—if McGowan or Crosby visited sites.
For his trouble, the delegate has been hounded by the media and threatened by Admin with being made a “removed person” under the laws of Administration, which would ban him from holding any office in the union.
In early May, about 1000 construction workers in NSW on at least five Lendlease sites stopped work over the sacking of a long-standing delegate.
They hadn’t been re-hired on another company site as per the EBA and the failure of the company to carry out a site safety audit after safety breaches, including an electrocution of a worker.
This is a way to show the builders that the CFMEU is alive and kicking.
A fight is needed because Jon Davies, chief executive of the Australian Constructors Association, said builders don’t think Admin is doing enough for them. They want more laws from state governments to neuter the CFMEU.
He said they want laws to “ensure long term change. We need to see better workplace health and safety regulations, a requirement for a fit and proper test for health and safety delegates (HSR)”.
Admin controls CFMEU delegates but HSRs come under state government OHS Acts, making them harder for builders and Admin to remove.
Davies also wants a new version of Howard’s ABCC. “At a Commonwealth level as well, I think we need to see a new construction code.”
The fight continues against Admin and the builders who stand to profit.
By Tom Orsag, retired CFMEU member
