By Di Quin
MELBOURNE — The Victorian state government has begun a vilification campaign against the deregistered Builders Labourers Federation because of the recent appointment of three Victorian BLF members as organisers within the state branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
These appointments and the appointment of BLF state secretary John Cummins as a CFMEU federal industrial relations officer have been overwhelmingly supported by members around the country. The positions were voted on by building workers in recent CFMEU elections.
According to BLF organisers, the move is part of an effort to create a major construction union to defend workers' rights and conditions and put an end to infighting amongst building workers.
The Kennett government has called this move a "BLF takeover bid", and has challenged the appointments in the Federal Court. This challenge was upheld, and the men were ordered not to work for the Victorian branch until December 13. However, the CFMEU national executive voted to employ the men as temporary organisers following a resolution at the union's October national conference in Sydney, which supported the merger with the BLF.
Victorian minister for industry and employment Phil Gude called the organisers "thugs and blackmailers" and said the government would not release $2.5 million of assets frozen when the union was deregistered in 1986. The move to block the appointments has also been supported by the Victorian ALP and the Master Builders Association.
The MBA's director of industrial relations, Bill Wallace, claimed that this was a move by the BLF to take over the Victorian CFMEU.
Speaking on the BLF's weekly program on radio 3CR one of the incumbents, John Loh, said that this allegation was ridiculous. He noted that the CFMEU leadership in Victoria is made up of 11 or 12 former Building Workers' Industrial Union officials, seven from the old painters' union, half a dozen from the Victorian Building Trades union, and that moves were being made to integrate tradespersons' unions.
Loh believes that the campaign against the BLF organisers is an insult to the intelligence of 20 or so other union organisers, especially as the idea is to start working together and get on the with task of defending workers' jobs and conditions. This is all the more important at a time when safety standards on the job are being eroded, workplace injuries are increasing and the Victorian government's new Workcover Act radically reduces protection for workers injured on the job.