Ian Jamieson, Perth
The return to work of 430 construction workers on the multi-billion-dollar Perth to Mandurah rail project has not eased threats from their employer, Leighton Kumagai, or from the Australian Building Construction Commission (ABCC), to sue the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and individual members.
After walking off the job 12 days earlier to protest Leighton's sacking of their union delegate, Peter Ballard, the workers agreed at a meeting on March 8 with their union's recommendation to try to resolve the dispute in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC).
Leighton, well aware that the CFMEU was recommending a return to work, attempted to further intimidate the workers by insisting on a meeting with them half an hour earlier at which management threatened immediate sackings, legal action and the loss of all entitlements if the strike continued. Knowing that each striker and the union faced a financial nightmare, the workers voted to return to the job and to pursue Ballard's reinstatement in the AIRC through an unfair dismissal claim.
In the AIRC the next day, Leighton agreed to pay Ballard an undisclosed sum of money in an attempt to prevent full public disclosure of some of the issues that have led to unprecedented industrial problems on the project. In a March 10 statement, Ballard declared that the dispute "was never about one individual and I don't want their blood money. It was all about 430 workers who have been pushed to the wall". He donated all of the proceeds from his unfair dismissal win to the Make a Wish Foundation for kids suffering cancer.
For 18 months, almost since work on the project commenced, the job has been marred by Leighton's attempts to whip CFMEU members into line with crippling working hours, lax safety regimes and constant flouting of agreements with the union. Even after winning a no-strike agreement before the AIRC last November, in which status quo arrangements were to remain in force, Leighton has continually changed its rules.
Even after the unionists returned to work last week, Leighton was insisting on its right to take legal action against the CFMEU and the 430 workers claiming redress for the strike. It has until March 15 to sue. Leighton is more likely to seek a permanent injunction against the CFMEU, but the threats to sue add to union members' fears about financial hardship.
The CFMEU and its individual members are already facing attack from another quarter. An ABCC letter to workers involved in the dispute gives them until close of business on March 10 to provide an "acceptable" explanation for their action or it will initiate legal proceedings. Potentially, each worker faces a fine of $22,000 and the CFMEU faces a fine of $110,000 per action. It has yet to be legally tested whether a strike as a whole, or each day of a strike constitutes an "action".
There are also reports of further sackings, as Leighton weeds out those who moved and seconded resolutions at union meetings. Dozens of workers have quit in disgust at their treatment.
Every employer body and their political advisers are baying for CFMEU blood. There have been strident calls from WA Liberals and employer peak bodies for the CFMEU to be deregistered, but there has also been one direct call for real blood: the West Australian, the state's only daily newspaper, published an editorial on March 9 that stated: "The time has come to take a baseball bat to the union and its strike-happy members and find out how many actually want to work and are prepared to do so under an Australian Workplace Agreement."
The WA CFMEU needs every union and unionist's support in its battle for workers' rights. Let them know that their famous slogan "Touch one - touch all" still resounds loudly amongst working people.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, March 15, 2006.
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