Sarah Smith, Perth
The WA branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has come under increasing attack since the federal Coalition government's Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act was passed in September.
The November 14 Australian Financial Review reported that eight WA building workers grilled by the new Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) were denied the right to choose their own lawyers. According to the CFMEU WA construction division secretary, John Sutton, one worker was questioned in the closed hearing without any legal representation.
The AFR reported: "The building commission relied on a 1987 National Crime Authority decision that found allowing one lawyer to represent all six men in a particular line of inquiry could 'taint' the investigation."
The ABCC has the power to compel witnesses to answer questions and produce documents on demand during investigations into illegal industrial activity. Those who refuse face mandatory imprisonment for up to six months.
The eight building workers summoned by the court were interrogated for several hours at a time, and each session was introduced with a warning that the workers were forbidden from revealing the contents of the proceedings.
WA CFMEU industrial officer Karen Scoble told the November 11 Workers Online: "They are applying rules, invoked to break organised crime, against individuals who haven't done anything wrong and are not even alleged to have done anything wrong. The whole process is about intimidating rank-and-file union members by subjecting them to star chamber proceedings that trample on their basic civil rights."
Scoble pointed out that one of the jobs under investigation by the ABCC has more than 400 workers. "This law gives them the right to interrogate every one of those people and there aren't that many lawyers in Perth."
In the same week as the commission began interviewing workers, the CFMEU claimed that ABCC personnel were seen spying on workers on the Mandurah to Perth railway project with binoculars and what appeared to be a directional microphone.
The government has also threatened construction workers who participated, without their employers' permission, in the November 15 national day of protest in defence of workers' rights with fines of up to $22,000. It has indicated that workers who refuse to dob in their workmates for attending the protest could also be fined.
From Green Left Weekly, November 30, 2005.
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