Ian Jamieson, Fremantle
Despite the spin from the Howard government about "choices" for workers and their unions under its new industrial relations laws, the big construction companies in Western Australia are gunning for the construction workers' union (CFMEU).
Even before the Work Choices legislation came into effect on March 27, 430 construction employees on the city end of the 72-kilometre Perth-Mandurah rail project faced enormous fines, threats of mass sackings and media-instigated violence when they voted in February to strike against the sacking of their union delegate. Even after a return to work, the giant construction firm Leighton is seeking to punish the workers and the CFMEU.
Now the WA CFMEU faces a massive battle on a second front. Spurred on by the new laws, another major construction company has ripped up months of negotiations with the CFMEU and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and introduced individual contracts to 180 construction workers in Port Hedland.
John Holland has invoked a clause in the new IR laws allowing a new project to be declared a "greenfield" contract, excluding unions from negotiating wages and conditions for employees. John Holland has the contract to build a new jetty for BHP's RapidGrowth project.
In freezing the CFMEU and AMWU out of negotiations, John Holland is the first employer to use this particular clause against the two powerful unions, setting what it hopes will be a precedent in the resources boom in WA's north-west. It may also become a precedent in the battle to oppose Howard's new IR system.
Speaking to Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly on March 30, Tim Kucera, an industrial officer for the WA CFMEU, explained that the move by John Holland has so far been isolated, although its example could spread as new projects are brought online. Billions of dollars have been earmarked for export-oriented mining projects in the region.
"The CFMEU", explained Kucera, "has been experiencing difficulties in dealing with John Holland in construction for well over a year. It has been heavy going as the company has developed an anti-union attitude."
$2 million in court damages against the CFMEU have been sought by John Holland in relation to other construction projects. Kucera described John Holland's use of the new law as a threat to all unions, and to workers' wages and conditions.
Although it is illegal for details of an individual contract to be made public, Kucera estimates that those who have begun to work on the Port Hedland jetty would be $90-100 per week worse off than the standard sought by the CFMEU. "Our union bases this on the initial discussions held with John Holland when the project was being formulated", he said.
He also explained the union's position on the situation confronting the 400 workers on the Perth rail tunnel. The CFMEU members walked off the job for 10 days in late February, angered by the sacking of their delegate Peter Ballard, who had been resolutely defending his members' conditions on a job where management had become increasingly hostile to the union.
In November, Leighton sought a court injunction barring strikes on the rail project, despite evidence of unsafe working practices, and continued to impede site-negotiated settlements and break agreements.
During the dispute, Leighton threatened further legal action against the CFMEU and its members. The company is currently pursuing an injunction against the union and is seeking monetary damages before the courts.
The government-appointed Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) has also weighed in with formal threats of fines of $22,000 against individual workers and $110,000 per day against the CFMEU.
The West Australian joined the attack with an editorial on March 9 demanding that a baseball bat be taken to union officials and their "strike happy" members to force them onto AWAs.
Since the strikers returned to work on the recommendation of their union, the intimidation has continued. The ABCC legal threats remain and Leighton has targeted employees it regards as being involved in union affairs.
Leighton has got around the clauses in the new laws that make it illegal to sack employees because they belong to a union by dismissing workers supposedly because of "operational requirements". Needless to say, a new employee is hired to fill the gap.
Kucera believes the CFMEU has been targeted as part of a long-held policy of the Howard government. "They went for the meat, coal and maritime industries, and over the past couple of years they have come for the construction industry. The Cole royal commission [into the building industry] was the first step to establish a 'cloak of legitimacy' to legally attack and bleed the construction unions financially."
Comparing the 1998 Patrick's dispute on the wharves with the current attacks on the CFMEU, Kucera said the current battle is being "fought [by the bosses] with wigs and gowns rather than balaclavas and Rottweilers. But the desired outcome remains the same — to take away workers' right to organise."
He appealed for community support for his union, and particularly for CFMEU members who are being pilloried in the media.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, April 5, 2006.
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