Support grows for CFMEU

 Written by: Nick G. on 13 September 2024

 

The SA Branch Executive of the Communications, Electricity and Plumbing Union (CEPU) voted on Wednesday night to disaffiliate from the SA Branch of the ALP.

The vote came as a tragic accident on a Queensland building site confirmed the dangerous nature of the industry and the consequent need for a union prepared to defy restrictions on right of entry.

And a newsletter from Left faction unions and members of the SA ALP said of the CFMEU being placed under Administration that “The object of this exercise is not to punish the guilty. It is to shut down a militant trade union which the Government (and its friends in the construction industry) find an inconvenience. If there were actual, evidence-based, allegations of criminality in the industry, then surely there are enough laws to bring charges and court cases to deal with them. That’s how the law is meant to work – rather than accusation and trial by media, followed by Government decree.”

The newsletter concluded that “if the Party leadership is going to start attacking unions that it doesn’t like or that get in its way, socialists in the Labor Party might have to consider whether they would be better off in a Party that actually defends working class interests.”

John Adley, SA Branch Secretary of the CEPU said in a message to members: “The damaging impacts of this legislation on workers will be felt wider than just the construction industry. The legislation is a ‘how to guide’ for any future government to destroy any trade union.”

Meanwhile, in Queensland, a worker was seriously injured on the taxpayer-funded Centenary Bridge Upgrade project after head contractor BMD repeatedly restricted union officials from accessing the worksite.

On Tuesday afternoon the worker was impaled in the neck after falling over a trip hazard and landing in a sheet of mesh.

CFMEU officials were onsite to investigate on Wednesday morning, ending several months of having their access to the site restricted by BMD.

Of the several thousand alleged acts of illegality by CFMEU officials raised by the capitalist media, the vast majority arise from CFMEU organisers courageously defying the restrictions on their right of entry to building sites precisely for the purpose of servicing the needs of members, with health and safety in the dangerous industry first among their concerns.

Rank and file members of the CFMEU are organising to defend their union.

These are early days in what will be a long struggle.

The ruling class and its anti-worker government have done their homework this time, and we are in for a protracted and drawn out struggle.