Thousands of angry Brisbane construction workers walked off the job on Thursday morning, marching to assemble outside the union’s office, where they voted for a 48-hour strike.
It was exactly the kind of response needed after the High Court refused to overturn the government takeover of their union, the CFMEU.
Workers paralysed the Cross River Rail, the 360 Queen Street project, the mega Brisbane Waterfront development project and many other sites.
“I’m angry that this union has been fucking taken off us,” said Ashley, a Health and Safety Representative.
“I’m angry that the Administration has been forced into our house where we never had any accusation [of corruption] against this Queensland branch, and I’m really angry that the High Court took 35 minutes to throw our court case out.” She concluded, “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
Mark, a scaffolder said, “Eight months ago this union was placed into Administration … apparently to flush out crime and corruption. Where is it? Where’s our allegations, where’s our trials, where’s our court dates, where’s our handcuffs? I see nothing.”
Former low-paid hairdresser and now construction site delegate, Lee, said ironically, “I apologise to my members on site if you ever felt bullied or intimidated by me.” She called the accusation that the CFMEU was anti-women “bullshit” and concluded, “I don’t care how long this goes for, but you’ll fucking drag me out of here screaming if they are going to take what we’ve got because it is too much for me to lose.”
Jade Ingham, the elected Assistant State Secretary (sacked by the Administration takeover) spoke last. On the failed court challenge, he said the union had needed “to fight on all fronts”, but, “We now know where we stand. We know that the institutions, we know that the political establishment, we know that the entire system is against us. The system is broken.
“We’ve got to be patient. We’ve got to be disciplined,” he said, and to a huge roar of approval, “We’ve got to be militant.
“We will be the union that stands up not just for construction workers”, Jade continued, “[but] for fairness in the community. That stands up against the genocide that’s happening in Palestine, that stands up for the rotten housing situation and leaves people homeless … that stands up for First Nations people.
“I worked over in England about 25 years ago. I’ve seen what the building industry looks like when trade unions get smashed, where refugees are living in shipping containers on the job, where there’s no penalty rates, there’s no safety committees, there’s no RDOs … I became pretty motivated when I came back not to let it happen here.”
Defying Administration
A motion to continue the strike for 48 hours was carried unanimously. The workers are demanding talks be held between their elected representatives, the Administrator and the Government, and the return of their union to democratic control.
After the vote to strike was taken, workers received a text message from the unelected Administrator saying, “CFMEU members are urged to return to work. We ask all members to work with the union to ensure that it is returned to democratic control as soon as possible.” This text message was read out and received a derogatory laugh.
Administrator Mark Irving later declared the “action this morning is likely to be unlawful industrial action”.
There was another strong turnout of members outside the Brisbane CFMEU office for the second day of the strike on Friday.
The spirit of defiance in Brisbane shows the way forward. It is the willingness of the CFMEU to defy the anti-strike laws to fight for safety and better wages in the construction industry that the Administration and the government want to break.
The members of the union have an overwhelming loyalty to their sacked, elected representatives and, collectively, they have the power to shut down the billion-dollar industry.
The action in Brisbane has the building bosses worried. Property Council of Australia’s Jess Caire moaned that, “Unprotected industrial action is leaving workers unpaid, bringing construction, including major projects and residential sites to a standstill.”
Mass stopwork action needs to spread nationally, as the first step in an ongoing industrial campaign against Administration.
There is a big fight ahead. Following the High Court decision the Administration intends to move ahead with its efforts to impose control on the union, planning “a national purge of union organisers”, according to the Nine papers.
But the action in Brisbane shows that construction workers have the power to overturn Administration and win back control of the union.
By Mark Gillespie
