Since sensationalised corruption allegations against the Construction Division of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) were broadcast on July 14, the leadership has announced an internal investigation and hundreds of Victorian members have shown they are keen for a fightback.
The Building Industry Group Unions (BIG Unions) which covers the electrical, plumbing and metal trades, as well as construction workers, has also come out to support the CFMEU.
BIG Unions said on July 29 that “construction workers need a strong, independent and democratic union to fight for and win what corporate Australia will never be able to deliver; that is safe workplaces and decent wages for working families”.
Two days before the Electrical Trades Union walked out of the New South Wales Labor Conference in protest at the CFMEU’s exclusion from it, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was speaking.
Zach Smith, National Secretary of the Construction Division of the CFMEU, told union members he will do everything to stop their union from being destroyed.
Smith noted that while the media “has been misinformed and the commentary from anti-union actors has been opportunistic, disgraceful and targeting your wages and conditions” the issues raised are “serious”.
He said the union had appointed Geoffrey Watson SC to investigate alleged criminal wrongdoing. Watson is a former counsellor who assisted the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption and was a Director of the Centre for Public Integrity.
Susan Halliday and Michael Paynter have also been appointed to review the union’s internal structure and governance. Halliday is a former Sex Discrimination Commissioner and the inaugural chair of Victoria’s largest professional regulator.
The union leadership does not want state intervention and is keen to assuage members’ fears that it is not doing enough to respond to the government and media attacks.
Labor and the Master Builders Association (MBA) rejected the CFMEU’s plan for an internal investigation.
Newly-appointed industrial relations minister Murray Watt said that the “issues within the CFMEU construction division have gone far further than anything the union can be put in charge of controlling”.
He said Labor would proceed with its plans for the “independent” administration of the union, for an indefinite period, while it looks at new legislation.
The MBA said on August 1 it supports the government plan, with Chief Executive Officer Denita Wawn saying it would abandon calls to deregister the CFMEU if Labor brings in a new industry regulator — with greater powers than the former Australian Building and Construction Commission.
The MBA is pushing for a Construction Industry Compliance and Corruption Agency, which would “be home to a permanent cross-jurisdictional police unit dedicated to targeting criminal activity and organised crime linked to the building and construction industry”.
Meanwhile, CFMEU rank-and-file members in Victoria are standing strong. Hundreds attended an overflowing branch meeting in Melbourne on July 31, keen to discuss a fightback.
A CFMEU rank-and-file group cancelled a rally on August 5 after BIG Unions said it would be unhelpful. The rally was called to pressure the Australian Council of Trade Unions over its support for suspending the union.
The CFMEU Victoria Member Control group said the union’s internal process “should be allowed to run its course”, while noting the “double standards” whereby “no corporation or government agency would ever face the level of scrutiny or consequence the CFMEU is being subjected to”.
It said it hoped the BIG Unions’ promise for a joint delegates meeting would soon happen so a fightback could could discussed.