15 August 2024
Dear members,
Joint Statement by the MUA and Construction Divisions of the CFMEU on Federal Government Legislation to place the CFMEU under Administration
This week, the Government introduced new laws that undermine the democratic rights of our union members to control their own future. This decision unfortunately reflects an extreme reaction to the anti-CFMEU rhetoric amplified by some conservative media outlets, and an entrenched political trade union opposition characterised by vilifying ordinary Australian working men and women and the trade union they choose to belong to.
This Government decision is an extension of the political objectives of its predecessor and their building and construction watchdog, the ABCC, which failed to explore the real issues of criminality and corruption that affect all of us in the industry through the use of untested allegations as a basis for an attack on our Union’s right to effectively preserve workers’ rights to equal access under law.
The Construction and General Division of the CFMEU and the MUA remain united in exposing this politically motivated, backdoor attack, to undermine and threaten the rights of construction workers. In an industry where abuse and the exploitation of power is already weaponised by employers against workers, and where health and safety run a distant second to their profits and schedules, this legislation furthers the danger faced by construction workers daily and leaves them exposed to the criminality and corruption the legislation ironically purports to stamp out.
Our strength as genuine trade unionists is in our unity. Both Construction and General and the MUA will do everything within our collective power to secure an outcome in the best interests of CFMEU members.
A forced administration through the terms of the legislation, devoid of any real consultation with actual construction workers and the forced isolation from their elected representatives, does nothing to improve the lives and safety of CFMEU members. In fact, it further entrenches the systemic imbalance of power between construction bosses and construction workers.
It is worth remembering that this legislation was lobbed into the Parliament as discussions between the CFMEU and the Fair Work Commission about its proposal for administration were taking place in a properly consultative and transparent process.
The CFMEU and MUA have a renowned, shared history over more than 152 years of representing Australian workers in some of the toughest and most dangerous workplaces, supporting and progressing their social and working lives whilst making the most important contribution to the health and safety of all workers across the sector, extending that progress to other workers throughout Australia and then internationally.
All Australian workers have benefited from our Union’s steadfast and resolute commitment to workers’ safety, economic justice and job security. We have been and remain the rising tide which lifts the conditions and safety standards throughout the economy as the basis for workplace productivity and wage justice.
For that, governments and many in big business have never stopped trying to weaken us to their partisan advantage.
Make no mistake: this legislation, the basis for it and the method of its introduction in its current form is a blunt and open attack on workers, their physical, material and social wellbeing, and their right to collectively represent and defend themselves, which is a basic human right.
We have made it clear that corruption and criminality have absolutely no place in unions, the construction sector, or in Australian society more broadly. Any allegations relating to criminality and corruption are serious. Where this behaviour is alleged, it should be investigated by the relevant authorities.
For our part, we immediately initiated an independent and wide-ranging investigative process, to support any investigation by authorities, focused on exposing any criminal behaviour and many other actions demonstrating our resolve.
However, we are used to being targeted by anti-union business interests and the governments that support them. What drives and motivates those attacks is that the CFMEU is a strong and effective trade union and our membership do not bend to weaponised power.
We have seen countless examples of corporate criminality in recent years, including in the construction industry, but we don’t see the same appetite for this type of unilateral action in other cases of criminal misconduct.
Right now, we have an ASIC investigation into ANZ potentially defrauding Australian taxpayers on an unprecedented scale – but the Government has not legislated to place the ANZ into administration, instead allowing the authorities do their job and providing procedural fairness and natural justice. The principles have been denied to construction workers and their union.
In the waterfront dispute of 1998, when Patricks sacked its entire workforce after conspiring with the Coalition Government to replace its workforce with secretly recruited and trained non-union labour trained in Dubai, the international community recognised this as one of the worst instances of anti-union conspiracy that reached into the highest political and corporate leadership. The Federal Court found that there was an arguable case of that conspiracy which was reinforced by the judgement of the High Court.
The case of conspiracy was later revealed in the batch of Cabinet papers from 1996/97, which showed that the Howard Government was planning the 1998 Patrick Waterfront Dispute well in advance and mislead the High Court.
To provide context to the current legislative offensive, no one – not Patricks, the Government or any others involved in that conspiracy – have been prosecuted, nor has legislation been enacted to prevent employers, and others, from conspiring to illegally sack workers.
The Administration Bill is an extraordinary and unprecedented piece of proposed legislation that is tantamount to an industrial law version of a bill of attainder. The specific object and purpose of the Bill is to subject the C & G Division to a bespoke regime where the rules of procedural fairness and natural justice do not apply and where action can be taken that could do substantial injustice to the union.
This Bill is the thin edge of the wedge: what is stopping Governments from applying similar legislation to other industries outside construction? It does not bode well for the rest of the trade union movement. The Bill is rushed, poorly drafted, and the Government is working with the Coalition to make it even more draconian.
We acknowledge the strong statements of solidarity and support that have been made by other trade unions in defence of natural justice and procedural fairness in the current rapidly unfolding developments. There is a growing recognition nationally and internationally that if our Union can be attacked in this way, then so can every other union and union member.
Be assured that our number one priority is to protect the safety, rights and wages of construction workers in a proper structured and judicially fair framework of identifying and dealing with criminality in the construction industry, including by commercial and corporate interests.
We will continue to keep you updated on developments as they happen.
In solidarity,
Zach Smith
National Secretary, CFMEU
National Secretary, CFMEU (Construction and General Division)
Paddy Crumlin
National President CFMEU
National Secretary MUA
