Officials from nine unions met in Canberra in early December for the “Trade Unions for Democracy” summit, held in response to the Labor government’s union busting attack on the CFMEU.
Labor’s attack, and the support for it from the peak union body the ACTU, has triggered outrage among blue collar unions. Officials representing 350,000 members from the ETU, MUA, the plumbers and meat workers unions as well as some state branches of the AMWU, RTBU and UFU all joined the summit, alongside sacked former CFMEU officials.
The summit was not just about opposing the administration of the CFMEU but, “about building a strong, powerful voice for working people and real union principles”, according to ETU Queensland Secretary Peter Ong, while the ETU’s National Secretary Michael Wright said it “represents a turning point for Australia’s unions”.
While the new grouping is clearly seen as an alternative to the ACTU, most of the unions involved also remain part of the existing national body.
The summit adopted a charter and agreed to hold a further summit early this year.
But there was no decision on running unions candidates in the federal election, despite earlier talk of standing Senate candidates against Labor.
Nor was there any plan agreed to fight the administration imposed on the CFMEU, or future national stopwork rallies.
The summit was held the day before the High Court hearing on the unions’ legal challenge to administration. A decision is expected in February or March.
But we can’t rely on the courts to end administration. Labor’s Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt says the government already has plans in place to respond even if it the unions do win, with Labor likely to just change the law again.
According to the Financial Review, “the administrators’ directors are promising there will be much stronger action after the High Court hands down its decision”.
We need a strategy if the court case fails. This will require further stopwork rallies to create a crisis big enough to force the government to restore union democracy in the CFMEU.
Site delegates and activists in the construction industry need to take responsibility for regular meetings on their sites to respond to breaches of safety and EBA conditions—as well as organising for the action needed to end administration.
By James Supple
