CFMEU Administrator Mark Irving has moved to tighten his grip on the union following Labor’s win in the federal election in May. Collaborators with Administration like Zach Smith are implementing his orders—showing that anyone who wants to keep the CFMEU as a militant union needs to take up the fight against Administration.
In mid-April Irving announced that he was rolling out a Strategic Plan for the union that will run until 2028.
He named Zach Smith, the National Secretary of the CFMEU and his appointed Victorian Branch Executive Officer, to implement this rotten plan.
But Smith’s announcement that he would restructure the union to increase the powers of the national office has been rejected across the country as a move that would only play into the Administrator’s hands and take power further away from the rank-and-file.
Sacked Queensland Secretary Michael Ravbar condemned the plan as “about removing opposition and silencing dissent”.
On 8 May, Smith’s plan was rejected in a vote at a Victorian delegates’ meeting. Irving was apparently furious.
Next Irving removed the ACT Branch’s Acting Secretary, Michael Hiscox, on 13 May and replaced him with Ben Davison, a former chief of staff at the ACTU who is close to Secretary Sally McManus.
The ACT was one of two CFMEU branches where officials kept their jobs when Administration came into force—with no allegations of corruption or criminality against the branch.
The real reason for Hiscox’s removal was his opposition to the Administration’s plans.
He signed a statement opposing Smith’s national office restructure and pushed back against Irving’s demand for higher payments from the ACT branch to cover the costs of Administration. These are already 50 per cent higher than previous payments from the ACT branch to the union’s national office.
Irving’s excuse for removing Hiscox was that ACT branch membership has fallen 18 per cent.
This is mainly due to a 25 per cent drop in non-residential construction in Canberra in the last year.
Membership has also fallen in several other branches due to Administration. South Australian membership is down 16 per cent, while NSW membership has dropped 17 per cent.
National Secretary
Following this, Zach Smith announced that he would “step back from the day-to-day responsibilities of National Secretary” to “focus” on the Victorian branch.
The media reported it as a shock move. But Smith, appointed as Executive Officer of the Victorian branch by the Administrator, has not been doing his “day-to-day duties” as National Secretary for months. Nor has he actually resigned as National Secretary—as his statement implied.
But Smith admitted that he is totally under the control of Irving, saying, “I was delegated the powers of National Secretary by the Administrator.” His role in Victoria only continues as long as he serves the Administrator too.
Irving wants to restructure our union into a tame-cat union that abides by Fair Work anti-union laws. A more centralised, bureaucratic structure with more powers for the national office is a step towards this.
Zach Smith has thrown his lot in with Administration in the hope of emerging with his position in the union intact after the process is over. But this means accepting the plan to tame-cat the CFMEU.
Irving’s intervention into the ACT branch has raised the anger of CFMEU members in both Queensland and Victoria.
Queensland’s Brisbane sub-branch meeting voted on 28 May to support a national protest against Administration if the Victorian branch also called a stopwork rally.
A motion was also moved the same night at the Victorian CFMEU monthly branch meeting for a strike and protest against Administration.
Zach Smith mobilised supporters to the meeting to vote it down, with attendance almost double the usual monthly figure.
But Zach has been badly discredited—and a discussion in the union about the need for action to fight Administration, and the officials who are collaborating with it, is now underway.
With Irving pushing ahead quickly to attack dissent in the union and impose his agenda, we can’t afford to wait for the High Court decision on the challenge to Administration.
The longer we put off fighting Administration, the harder it will be to break. We have already been waiting five months for the High Court decision.
Even if the High Court goes our way, Labor will use its majority with the support of the Liberals in the Senate to amend legislation and ensure Administration keeps control.
CFMEU members need to keep pushing for the industrial action that is going to be needed to end Administration and put the union back in the hands of its members.
By Tom Orsag, CFMEU member
