BY RUSSELL PICKERING
PERTH — Fifty building sites from Woodvale to Kwinana ground to a halt on September 8 as 4000 construction workers downed tools for 24 hours to protest the death toll in the building industry.
The latest fatality, that of a demolition worker at the Robe River Iron Associates Cape Lambert site, has brought the number of workers killed on building sites in Western Australia over the past 14 months to 23.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) assistant state secretary Joe McDonald has described WA employment minister John Kobelke as being "asleep at the wheel" over workplace safety. The September 8 strike was "designed to wake him up", McDonald told Green Left Weekly. If it didn't, further strike action will be taken.
The strike followed a 24-hour stoppage by 350 construction workers at seven John Holland sites around Perth on September 2, in protest against construction giant Transfield (John Holland is part of the construction group), after it decided to appeal the compensation awarded to Trina Guagliardo whose husband died in a workplace accident in 2000. The appeal against the paltry $50,000 payout has angered unionists.
The CFMEU also believes the lack of commitment to worker safety by the state Labor government is typified by adjournments of hearings by the Builders Registration Board (BRB) over the fitness of Devcon head Sven Tobiassen to continue to hold a building industry license.
Construction worker Des Kelsh died on a Devcon site in Myaree last September after a tilt-up panel collapse brought down the roof he was working on. His family has not received a single cent in compensation.
Despite further safety concerns at Devcon sites since the fatality, the BRB only began hearings into the case at the end of August. Kobelke has defended the board and rejected the CFMEU's criticisms that it will not take decisive action against Tobiassen.
From Green Left Weekly, September 17, 2003.
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