Support for the CFMEU has grown in the weeks since Labor imposed administration.
Initially only three unions opposed it: the Electrical Trades Union and the plumbers’ union, both part of the national Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), and the Maritime Union of Australia.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus claimed she could count on one hand the number of votes against it from union leaders on the ACTU Executive.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) in Victoria, part of the Building Industry Group of unions, opposed administration and has supported the construction industry rallies in Melbourne.
In Sydney the AMWU’s acting NSW Secretary Brad Pidgeon also spoke at the second rally on 18 September, saying the union was, “here to support the CFMEU Executive, Committee of Management, delegates and importantly the members”.
He attacked Labor’s legislation imposing administration, saying, “Every union should take note of this legislation because at the end of the day, no one is off limits.”
Rail Tram and Bus Union National Secretary Alex Claassens has also voiced dissent, saying, “A weakened CFMEU … would inevitably compromise safety and workplace standards in the construction and infrastructure sectors.
“It would empower and embolden employers in those sectors and compromise the ability of unions such as the RTBU to represent their own members.”
The CEPU has disaffiliated from the ACTU and suspended its Labor Party affiliation.
It has announced that it is calling a summit of blue-collar unions to set up an alternative to the ACTU. The summit can provide a welcome opportunity to discuss the way forward for the union movement and the strategy needed to break the shackles of the Fair Work Act and win back the right to strike.
Opposition to administration is not confined to blue-collar unions.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) NSW Division Council passed a motion opposing administration and calling on the union’s national executive to oppose Labor’s legislation.
The Queensland Teachers Union adopted a motion of support at its State Council, moved by rank-and-file members, that noted the “democratic right of all workers to be represented by a union, rather than by appointed administrators”.
Teachers have also launched an open letter to the Australian Education Union Federal Executive calling on them to oppose administration.
The RPA branch of the nurses and midwives union in Sydney has also carried a resolution backing the CFMEU.
Motions like these are needed across the union movement to reverse the backing many union leaders have offered to the attack on the CFMEU.
