BY TRISH CORCORAN
& HELEN BRANSGROVE
SYDNEY — Angry about suddenly losing their jobs and their employer's refusal to pay their entitlements, 140 construction workers occupied the head office of Deemah Marble and Granite and then the office of PM John Howard on August 3.
Money owed to the company by building giants Multiplex, Leighton and Baulderstone should be enough to cover the entitlements owed to the workers, who are members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, but Deemah seems to be in no hurry.
"We have learned today that the company assets have been squandered by the directors", Brian Parker, the CFMEU's Sydney coordinator, told Green Left Weekly. "We found out through an accountant that the director paid himself $1 million in director's fees and several million dollars in loans."
Parker said the union was planning to continue its "industrial battle" and that workers on large building sites are taking action in solidarity with the Deemah workers. "We are confident that we will win because our members are politically aware of the issues related to their entitlements and know what needs to be done", he said.
Robert Bassili, a 22-year-old who has just finished his stone masonry apprenticeship with Deemah, is one of the retrenched employees. "We have been laid off with none of our holiday pay, sick pay or other entitlements", he told Green Left.
"Deemah is the biggest marble and granite company in Australia", he said. "If the union succeeds, we'll have another three or four weeks of work and our entitlements. If not, there's no work tomorrow. Rumours of the closure have been going around for a few weeks, but they only gave us a few days' notice."
After their protest action, the unionists marched to the United States consulate in Martin Place to join a rally of 100 people demanding the lifting of the sanctions on Iraq. The unionists' solidarity was much appreciated by the many Iraqi refugees present.
"Many workers at Deemah are migrants and support the struggle of the Iraqis here today and their campaign to lift the sanctions", Parker said. "Some of the workers also come from countries where there is a great amount of repression, exploitation and poverty. They understand what it is like living in poor countries that are subject to reactionary policies of rich countries and their representatives, like the UN sanctions on Iraq."