Just before I started writing this message, I received a poem via our website, The Rigger's Lament, which is a moving and critical reflection on the working man’s struggle to earn a living in the current economic climate.  

Yachtie Pete’s description pretty much sets the scene for some of the debates that took place at the CFMEU Construction & General Division’s Conference last week.

The Conference is an important forum for assessing how our members are faring and planning directions for the next couple of years. And it was successful on both fronts.

Building the union

The Conference recognised that although the hostile environment of the Howard years hadn’t destroyed the CFMEU as the main representative voice of Australian construction workers; the fact remains that there are tens of thousands of workers the CFMEU can represent, who are not members of the union.

Many workers are unaware of the benefits of membership, are intimidated by employers from joining or are working under the ABN system and don’t see us as relevant.

Others are content to receive the benefits fought for by unionists without contributing – to put it bluntly, they are bludging on their mates.

The Conference committed CFMEU Construction to change all that and grow our membership again.

(And if you are reading this and are not yet a member, even though you could be, check out the Benefits membership brings you. Or if you know that already, simply Join today.)

Wages and conditions

Tens of thousands of workers in the construction industry are covered by collective agreements - the vast majority negotiated by the CFMEU.  Those workers get the benefit of higher wages, super and redundancy payments etc. And they are achieved through tough negotiations with employers; nothing is given freely in our industry.  But union negotiated collective agreements also underpin the economic environment for workers not covered by formal agreements.

Our job in the years ahead is to use the modest improvements under the Fair Work Act to maximise the number and quality of collective agreements for our members.

We must also ensure that the CFMEU continues to lead the way in resources and infrastructure construction.

At the same time, the CFMEU will work on key areas of the Fair Work laws that still need changing. These should include permitting pattern bargaining and enhancing unions’ ability to recruit and service members through workplace visits without undue restriction by the employer.

Exploitation of Guestworkers

Conference also addressed the explosion of temporary migration schemes that rip off those workers and undermine rates of pay and conditions in Australia.

I have spoken out about that again recently in the media in the light of the current hysteria about asylum seekers.

As a union built on immigration in an industry built by migrants, the CFMEU supports a vibrant balanced immigration program. However the use of the various temporary visa schemes as a method of exploiting guest workers and driving down local wages and conditions is a betrayal of the post war move to a non-racist migration policy which enabled migrants to build a permanent future for themselves and their families.

Safe and secure jobs

While the Conference was on, a concreter was tragically killed in Melbourne on the old Pentridge Prison site, where a number of townhouses and apartments are being built. But rather than address the substandard safety and bogus subcontracting involved in the job, the ABCC, which looks after Federal Government interests, was only interested in curtailing union access to the site. [More.]

Bogus use of ABN numbers and the continuing high rates of death and serious injury in the construction industry remain priorities for your Union.

Opportunities to win

Next week on Friday October 30, South Australian rigger, Ark Tribe, faces court again over charges of allegedly attending a safety meeting and refusing to dob in his mates to the ABCC. 

Ark will have the support of thousands of construction workers across the country on that day.  The CFMEU will continue to fight for an end to the coercive powers and one law for all workers in this country. And we will prevail.

And when we wipe out that period of ideological warfare in our industry, the CFMEU will be recognised as part of the solution to the industry’s future, not a problem.

Already sensible industry players are sniffing the wind and recognising this.

The CFMEU will engage with those players by doing what we have always done:

• articulating a vision of the industry for our members
• putting out a hand for those who need help, and
• demanding secure and safe jobs for our members.

I see the coming years as exciting and brimming with possibility. Having survived the war, we have the opportunity to win the peace.

Let’s grab that opportunity with both hands.