As Labor comes under fire for its inability to solve the housing crisis, those cheering on its attack on the construction division of the Construction Forestry Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) claim the union is responsible for the shortfall of Labor’s promised 300,000 new homes.
Outlandish, contradictory claims have been thrown around regarding the construction sector’s “poor productivity”. This is despite 41,000 workers joining the industry in the last financial year.
Deloitte Access Economics forecasts construction jobs will grow by 2% (or 74,300 jobs) over 2024-25. The industry currently employs 1.3 million people. However, there is still a lack of skilled labour to meet the needs of any significant housing construction drive.
It has been confirmed by federal authorities that they have launched 42 new coercion and corruption investigations into CFMEU officials and others in the industry.
Construction bosses met with Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt on October 16. Australian Constructors Association chief Jon Davies told The Age he was hoping for an agreement to “fix chronic problems including low productivity and the failure of many building firms”.
Blaming the CFMEU for slowing down projects and driving up costs makes no sense when the union does not have enterprise agreements with, or members, in the housing industry, the peak body of which is the Housing Industry Association.
Watt did not promise to raise apprenticeship numbers or provide training for a greater numbers of carpenters, electricians and plumbers needed to build more homes.
Instead, he lauded the Fair Work Ombudsman’s investigations and government-appointed administrator Mark Irving, while saying Irving was having difficulty convincing complainants to report corruption, implying this was due to intimidation rather than there being nothing to complain about.
Indeed, there has still been no proven corruption, despite nearly a dozen CFMEU officials being sacked following a media beat-up in July.
The whole costly attack on the CFMEU is beginning to resemble that of former Coalition Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s $45.9 million 2014 Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.
That commission interviewed 505 witnesses over 189 days, only to find one person guilty and, even then, corruption was not found. One CFMEU official was sentenced to a $500 good behaviour bond for disposing of documents, that were later found to be irrelevant.
The construction industry employers have not hidden their main agenda — which has nothing to do with CFMEU corruption.
They want to destroy the unions’ ability to organise safely, particularly through the pattern bargaining of enterprise agreements.
The CFMEU has always supported the practice of applying pay deals won through enterprise bargaining with big construction firms to smaller companies. This means that workers doing the same job on a site all receive the same pay and conditions.
However, to ensure bosses stick to these agreements, the union has a network of well-trained shop stewards and health and safety representatives to maintain high standards. These workers are serviced by industrial organisers and elected officials.
It is this arrangement that construction bosses want the right to roll back. Green Left understands that in Victoria, to date, only 35 of this year’s new CFMEU enterprise agreements have been signed off.
A quick glance at WorkSafe Victoria’s latest cases shows just how untrustworthy some industry bosses are.
On October 8, the director of a plumbing company was fined $20,000 for driving a ute with a teenage apprentice in his toolbox.
On October 15, a construction company was fined for $125,000 after a second-storey formwork failed during a concrete pour, causing three workers to fall more than two metres.
On September 18, a steel and precast company was fined $160,000 after bypassing a 60-tonne crane’s safety system before it toppled into a building, narrowly missing two workers.
On August 15, a concrete company was fined $30,000 after a worker’s hand was partially amputated in a concrete pump.
These are non-fatality cases but, in Australia every year, approximately 30 people die on construction sites and 12,500 suffer serious workplace injuries.
Construction workers’ lives are regularly put at risk because of the many cost-cutting decisions their employers make. If not for construction unions’ significant attention to safety, the rate of deaths and injuries would be even higher.
Meanwhile, 23 officials from the National Building Industry Group, representing more than 250,000 workers, decided on October 16 to organise a “Trade Unions for Democracy Summit” on December 9 and to hold a mass rally the next day, when High Court challenge to the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Administration) Bill 2024 is heard.
It passed a resolution condemning Labor for its forcible administration of the construction division of the CFMEU, saying it lacked natural justice and “trial by Parliament and media is not how we do things in Australia”. It also condemned the CFMEU administrator for banning CFMEU officials and staff from attending the meeting.
The December summit aims to bring unionists, from across the country, together to discuss campaign to restore union democracy and discuss the future of militant trade unionism.
It will also consider proposals for political, industry and social campaigns to support union democracy, which could include funding and supporting union-friendly candidates in the federal election. Green Left understands that there may be another nationwide rally to protest the undemocratic anti-CFMEU law on October 30.