BY ANTHONY BENBOW
PERTH — "When [Richard] Court and [Graham] Kierath were in power we had security guards and thugs on the wharves, now [Geoff] Gallop and the ALP are in and we have the same thing happening on construction sites. Is this what we want to happen?" asked one picketer of those gathered outside the Pindan Constructions site in East Perth.
The previous day, November 21, police had roughly arrested three organisers from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), including assistant secretary Joe McDonald, after the company had called the police to have them removed from the site.
McDonald and organisers Jim Murphy and Graham Pallott all refused to leave, saying they had a right to enter the site. Press photographs show police then wrestling the three to the ground. The union alleges that the three were assaulted by police and is planning a formal complaint.
Angry at the treatment of their officials, unionists on city building sites downed tools and gathered outside the site in Goderich Street to protest. A contingent of 60 police confronted the 500-strong rally, which was addressed by McDonald.
The following morning, a picket line established at 5am grew to more than 60 people by 7am when CFMEU officials, including secretary Kevin Reynolds, were finally allowed entry to the site.
The right of unionists to enter work sites was outlawed in Western Australia in 1997, as part of the draconian "third wave" industrial relations laws enacted by then Liberal premier Richard Court and his industrial relations minister, Graham Kierath.
The "third wave" laws were passed despite a campaign run by WA unions which involved a march of 35 000 workers on Parliament House, and the establishment of a "workers embassy" at what is now Solidarity Park.
Labor came to power in WA in February and abolished some of Court and Kierath's measures, including a Building Industry Task Force, established in the "second wave" of industrial relations changes in 1996, and which harassed and intimidated unions trying to organise construction workers.
But after nine months in government, most of the second and third wave laws remain largely unchanged. Key WA unions — including the CFMEU and the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union — are now threatening to withhold funding from the ALP until the laws are repealed.
Instead of paying the thousands of dollars it "owes" the ALP, the CFMEU is spending the dollars fighting the harsh laws in the Supreme Court.
Perth construction companies are also applying heavy pressure to the Gallop government — pining for the bad old days of the task force. The Master Builders Association's Michael McLean has charged that the new inspectorate which replaced it is "incapable" of dealing with "union thuggery".
Some unionists are speculating that the MBA has decided to take provocative action now because the confidence of its members was boosted by the re-election of the federal Coalition. Fearing an escalation in the attacks on the unions, one former Maritime Union of Australia delegate told the picket line, "I'm down here because in 1998 when MUA members were under attack, the CFMEU was our strongest ally. Now we in the MUA will stand strong with the CFMEU to defeat the attacks"
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, November 28, 2001.
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