“Don’t add my body to your deadline!”

Vanguard August 2010 p. 11
Nick G.

Another worker’s body has been added to the line of dead from construction sites around Australia. Yet another workplace has been added to those whose walls are built over a framework of human flesh.

The latest act of industrial manslaughter has taken place at the Adelaide Desalination Plant site where a 35-year old man - a father of a twelve month old child – was crushed to death by a steel beam that fell from the soft sling of a crane.

The death occurred the day after the site had been given a safety clearance by the Federal Safety Commission.

It occurred three days before Ark Tribe, facing six months gaol for refusing to attend an ABCC interrogation into a safety-related issue, was due to return to the courts of the capitalist class.

It occurred at a time when there is growing concern – and rightly –about the mounting death toll of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, but complete silence from politicians of both major parties about the growing death toll of the army of the industrial working class.

Seven thousand die each year in this country from work-related issues.

State Secretary of the CFMEU Martin O’Malley said the desalination plant site had been working at full speed for several months, with three shifts of up to 1300 people working seven days a week, “just so some bloody politician can turn a tap on in December”.

Short-cutting safety
State Treasurer Kevin Foley declared in April 2008 that he wanted to deliver the Adelaide desal plant “as fast as we can”.

Political grandstanding around an unwanted, environmentally damaging, dangerous project that would see water rates soar, combined with a savage disciplining of labour time as three separate sub-contractors struggled to ensure a continuous flow of materials and coordination of tasks throughout the site.

Hence the use of the soft slings – fibreglass threaded material that ensures that steel is not scratched when it is lifted: scratched steel needs to be painted before work can proceed.

But soft slings do not secure steel beams in the same way as slings made from chains and wire. They are meant to be subjected to regular stress tests, but are difficult to examine for wear and fatigue and can weaken and fail without notice.

This has been pointed out time and again by the union on sites all over the city, but the practice continues because repainting scratched steel means a loss of labour time used in the production of surplus value – the source of capitalist profit.

More problems identified
To clean up the desal plant site, the CFMEU and AMWU have met with site operators Adelaide Aqua (a consortium consisting of Spain’s Acciona Aqua, the UK’s United Utilities, Germany’s Abigroup Contractos and Australia’s McDonnell Dowell) and identified around 300 matters that need to be fixed.

Some workers have refused to go back to work until the problems are fixed.

While the bosses were driven by greed for profits, workers at the plant have selflessly pledged a day’s pay in support of their dead colleague’s family.

The important lesson from this tragedy – from this crime of industrial manslaughter –is for construction workers not to be intimidated by the thugs of the ABCC, but to stand tall like Ark Tribe and dare to defy the monopolies and their deadlines.

No more bodies for the deadlines of the boss!
Scrap the ABCC and demand a safe workplace!