Rebel blue collar unions were set to meet in a “Trade Unions for Democracy Summit” as this was written, ahead of the opening of the unions’ High Court challenge to the CFMEU administration regime.
Many are still putting their hopes in the court case overturning administration—with a decision expected by February or March. But the government has already vowed to legislate again and reverse the result if the unions win.
Representatives from the ETU, MUA, plumbers’ union, AMWU and RTBU are discussing plans to run senate candidates in the federal election. A union-backed electoral campaign against Labor is another chance to expose the ALP’s anti-union attack and build opposition to administration.
But the stopwork rallies held in Brisbane on 27 November, and in Sydney two weeks before, need to continue and grow. With the CFMEU set to be kept in administration for at least three years, ongoing industrial action is the only way to win back union democracy.
The administrators are slowly tightening their grip.
Respected Victorian CFMEU health and safety organiser Esther Van Arend was summarily sacked by the administrator in late November over an alleged altercation with Nine media journalist Nick McKenzie at a cinema. She has been a vocal critic of administration.
Administrator Murray Irving has also requested an investigation into charges against sacked NSW CFMEU Secretary Darren Greenfield for obstructing administration, which carries a fine of up to $187,000 or a maximum two years’ jail.
Sydney stopwork
When CFMEU delegates in NSW called a third stopwork protest against administration on 12 November, the administrators did everything in their power to try to stop it.
They even sent out an SMS to all members at 4pm the day before the protest claiming, “There is no CFMEU rally tomorrow.”
This followed a letter sent to all members on CFMEU letterhead warning, “This action is NOT authorised by the CFMEU” and was unprotected action and claiming that if anyone attended, “Your employer may have the right to take action against you.”
CFMEU organisers were told they’d be sacked if they attended or promoted the rally.
But 2000 workers defied the administrators to take to the streets. The turnout, however, was well down on the previous stopwork rallies in August and September.
As sacked NSW CFMEU Secretary Darren Greenfield put it, “They thought they could scare our members into not coming out on the streets today.
“And they might have achieved it with some, but they will see that you’ve turned out on the streets to protest these rotten, stinking laws and stand and fight and that will spur others on. Next time they’re lied to and told not to come … they will turn up and they will turn up in droves.”
Some bosses prevented their workers from attending, threatening delegates with the sack if they walked members off the site.
This shows the importance of rank-and-file CFMEU delegates and activists making sure workers understand the administration’s dirty tricks and organising to carry their sites to attend future stopwork protests.
CFMEU delegate Denis McNamara told the crowd to “prepare yourselves. If the High Court challenge doesn’t go our way … we have no option but to shut this industry down until our union is delivered back to us.”
That’s the kind of industrial action needed to defeat administration.
