Pearls and Irritations

The Haydon Royal Commission in 2014 revealed evidence that corrupt elements were infiltrating the CFMEU, NSW Branch. This grew steadily in the 10 years since and the branch is now rotten. In Victoria, the “strongman” leadership of John Setka and his close friendship with a “colourful identity” and building industry fixer, together with an influx of bikies, sent signals about where the branch was heading.

The situation in Queensland is different. Power drunk officials have gone off track by indulging in ultra-militancy – popular with some members, but ultimately suicidal.

Couldn’t criminality in NSW and Victoria be sorted by an independent rank and file group, such as happened in the NSW BLF in the 1960s? In movies with happy endings like On The Waterfront, the good guys rise up. There has been no sign of this anywhere inside or outside the CFMEU over the last 10 years. Why not?

A number of reasons, primarily:

• Many genuine union activists have been driven out. Many of the newcomers are friends and family of the ‘strongmen’ in NSW and Victoria, though the depth of committed unionists in Victoria and Queensland is greater.
• Democratic processes have been weakened. Branch elections had been due shortly. Where were the challengers with funds and the courage to step forward? Nobody wants to be spoken to by bikies or crime figures about the inadvisability of their election bid.
• Marcus Strom observed that there is an “absence of any broad-based working-class consciousness that characterised the strong unions of the post-war Keynesian era”. With no significant anti-capitalist political party in Australia today, there is an absence of leadership that can encourage the working class to act in its own interests.

Was there an alternative?

The Coalition and some employer groups, dreaming of a world without a strong building industry union, have talked up deregistration, a Royal Commission and the reintroduction of the ABCC

What have these “solutions” delivered in the past?

Deregistration – the building unions have a long history of this. The BWIU, the BLF and the FEDFA all experienced deregistration in the past. The process never achieved much. Under today’s Fair Work Act, a grouping from a deregistered organisation could set itself up as a bargaining agent and create a shadow union.

Royal commissions – there have been four since the 1960s involving the building unions: The Winneke RC in Victoria which found corrupt dealings by Norm Gallagher; The Gyles RC in NSW, headed by an anti-union judge horrified by legitimate union power. He was largely disinterested in employers’ use of criminal elements for standover; The Cole RC, a national inquiry, again headed by an anti-union judge. Cole was even less interested in confronting criminality. He designed a suite of measures aimed at delivering a weaker union; then the Haydon RC, a national anti-union show but which did, for the first time, spotlight corruption inside the union.

What have these Royal Commissions achieved? Very little! Some retired judges have made a fortune. Vast swathes of lawyers have grown richer. The public purse has forked out hundreds of millions and you would be scratching to find more than two union officials who have ever been successfully charged.

Australian Building and Construction Commission

This bunch of union busters first got together in the early 2000s after the Cole RC. Replete with extraordinary legal powers, it consistently dragged the CFMEU into court to extract fines for breaches of draconian IR laws then in force. During the Rudd/Gillard years, it was reconstituted and did not solely focus on union misdemeanours. In 2013, Tony Abbott’s LNP government tried to reintroduce the ABCC but couldn’t get Senate cooperation. Re-establishing this outfit was the reason for the 2016 double dissolution election.

The Turnbull Government re-established the ABCC. With criminality “outside its remit”, its main boast was the number of fines it had slapped on the unions. Organised crime infiltration accelerated: buying up specialist contracting companies, phoenix operations, money laundering etc. The ABCC saw nothing.

There might be a place for a dedicated cop squad to focus on organised crime. There is none for the blinkered union busters who’ve always inhabited the ABCC.

Will administration set a precedent?

The Coalition is bound to attack the CFMEU under all circumstances. Its Construction Division has been the Liberals’ go-to “ugly” union in the parliament for years. The “Building Bad” exposé by Nine journalists is everything the Liberals ever wanted to hear about this “militant” union. They will hit the CFMEU with the kitchen sink if they are elected any time soon. The best defence is a strong, clean union capable of garnering broad support.

The ALP approach is driven by the political necessity of being seen to act and a desire to see the union cleaned up and on a more mainstream path. Some argue that the ALP wants a compliant union that pays donations and causes no embarrassment. However, I think the ALP realises a weak CFMEU would rebound against them if reduced wages and conditions, and more accidents and deaths occurred in an industry of more than a million workers.

Is this a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

A sledgehammer maybe, but this situation is not a “nut”. Six weeks of articles in the Nine papers say different. The Mining and Energy Division recently dis-amalgamating says the same. The Forestry and Manufacturing Division wanting out is a similar signal.

Nuts are seeds and if ignored, they grow and become harder to deal with. It would be reckless to turn a blind eye. This has been going on for too long.

The appointment of an administrator backed by special legislation has never been done before in Australia. But then never before has a major trade union in this country been infiltrated by organised crime. This situation is not unique. The Labourers Union of North America had extensive periods under Federal Administration due to infiltration by organised crime. The administration process in the US has had a generally positive outcome.

Conclusion

The situation in the CFMEU is akin to a cancerous tumour. You can pretend it’s not there. You can promise to self-medicate. You can wish it would go away. None of that will work. As someone who loves this union, who is a life member and played a big part in its establishment, I know the painful truth. The union must undertake the risky surgery of government intervention now so that it might recover before the Liberals seek to annihilate us.

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