Last May Day in Toowoomba there were discussions amongst the Labor Day committee as to whether the CFMEU should march next to the 16-person bagpipe band, as their chants were drowning out the bagpipes last year. One thing is for sure in Toowoomba, and that is that the CFMEU are passionate, loud and proud participants of the May Day celebrations.
It is also well known that the CFMEU have a lot to be proud off. Their emphasis on the policy of touch one touch all has meant that it is the culture of solidarity and strength that the CFMEU are known for. It goes beyond the old wobbly statement of ‘An injury to one is an injury to all’ to include any kind of abuse by corporations and bosses. The following are some of their recent campaigns.
Nationally
Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
The CFMEU has also shown great solidarity with the movement against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as solidarity with protestors arrested in Australia whilst protesting against the genocide. The CFMEU threatened to shut down the wharves if charges against their fellow protestors were not dropped. The CFMEU stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and have stated that if you are a trade unionist you stand for peace including peace in Palestine. In Canberra the CFMEU have marched in solidarity with the student protestors at ANU, and stopped work at ANU for a day when the encampment was threatened by the university
Killer Stone
Nationally the CFMEU have been involved in a campaign to stop the use of deadly engineered stone. From the 1st of July all engineered stone was banned from all CFMEU worksites, with Qld, Victoria and the ACT to adhere to this ban. All other states have asked for a ‘transitional period’ which continues to put workers lives at risk.
Engineered stone causes Silicosis, a deadly lung disease, caused by inhaling tiny bits of silica dust leading to scarring or fibrosis of lung tissue. It causes shortness of breath, coughing and chest pain and can lead to severe respiratory problems, lung cancer, autoimmune diseases and death. Silicosis also increases the risk of getting other serious conditions like tuberculosis, chest infections, emphysema and kidney damage.
The exposure mostly occurs during the installation of engineered stone benchtops More than half a million Australian workers are currently exposed to silica dust and 600 workers in Australia have silicosis. One out of four workers exposed to silica before 2018 have been diagnosed with silicosis. 103,000 people will contract silicosis in their lifetime and 10,000 will develop lung cancer unless this killer stone is banned.
CFMEU worker Kyle Longform has been given a death sentence due to his exposure to silica dust. Kyle worked as a stone mason in sheds cutting polishing and shaping stone benchtops where there was a lot of dust in the air. Engineered stone has a high concentration of silica dust. Silicosis has meant that he has been suicidal and unable to have children with his partner, due to the fact that he probably has only months to live.
In spite of this Defense Housing has Mandated deadly engineered stone in all 900 of their new homes across Canberra, Sydney, Newcastle and Nowra. The CFMEU is standing against this proposal.
Queensland
The Cross River Rail
On Monday the CFMEU recommenced it’s strike action against CPS, the construction company in charge of building the 10-billion-dollar cross river rail project. This project has overshot it’s budget by 960 million dollars. Media network giants’ channel 7 and channel 10 have stated that if these workers continue to strike there will be no trains going to the Rayal Exhibition of Brisbane this year. But no mainstream media network has ever discussed the reason why these workers are taking protected industrial action. Whilst major news networks blame the CFMEU for ‘holding the state to ransom’ and say that workers are already being over paid, this is not the case. In some cases, workers are being paid below award wage on a 10-billion-dollar project, while the company is charging the government full wage cost for all the workers. The government being charged ‘full freight’ whilst the workers aren’t receiving the money, states Assistant Secretary Jade Ingham.
The cross-river rail project employs 2,500 workers, of which 170 are covered under the company EBA as they are the only workers that work directly for the head contractor. The EBA that the CFMEU are hoping for will provide job security and proper pay. The workers decided on Friday afternoon to go on strike to be treated equally across the project, showing a great act of selfless solidarity for many of the workers. “Where workers stick together and fight together, they win together, they move mountains’ Jade Inham said.
At the protest Andrea spoke to the crowd as a worker who works on the cross-river rail project since February 2022 to show solidarity with and to thank the men and women who are going on strike and taking protected industrial action to support the sub-contractors who would benefit from a better EBA. Traffic controllers earn $26.81 an hour working 50 hours a week to support their families. Andrea says that working these long hours sacrifices their family life, their personal life and possible their mental health. Andrea is a single mother who has had to move into a share house to afford the rent and can’t afford medical and car insurance.
More than 30 people went to hospital and there was one fatality due to heat stress. The CFMEU heat policy is designed to stop this from happening. Jade Ingham calls out the companies ‘Belligerent opposition to a decent heat policy, that is enforced all around Brisbane and all over the State and keeps people safe’
In advocating for the CFMEU heat policy to be instated, Andrea states that she watched two of her work colleagues be transported to hospital as a result of heat stress, which means she does not have faith in the CPS or the way that they operate to be able to protect workers. ‘We stand together, Touch one, touch all’
While an article by Natalie Galea.in The Conversation decides it’s perfect time to point out the blokey nature of construction sites, based on her personal experiences alone, it’s hardly intersectional to stick the boot in to the women construction workers, fighting for fair work conditions, fair pay, proper heat policies and work place security with the cross river rail. , The CFMEU women have also had to continue their fight for adequate toilet facilities in Brisbane worksites, including the cross-river rail.
Toilet Facilities for Women
Last June CFMEU women led a protest against Brisbane construction companies because of the lack of toilet facilities
‘The things these women have gone through are disgusting and disgraceful. We shouldn’t be doing it today. We are not fucking cave women. We are women of 2024. We should get toilets. We are entitled to them’ stated a protestor
Another woman states that they have been asking for adequate toilet facilities for over ten years. ‘I know exactly the luxury that our politicians have in 1 William Street because I’ve worked in every single fucking bathroom in that building when it was being built. But here we are again in 2024, still having to fight for our dignity because again us women have been left behind.’
Aussie Jobs, Aussie products.
Last Friday the CFMEU picketed foreign made glass and lead contractor Downer EDI at their Brisbane Headquarters, chanting ‘Aussie products, Aussie jobs “Downer has moved crucial parts of the Labor Government’s Queensland Trains Manufacturing Program offshore. The 9.5-billion-dollar project aimed to bring manufacturing back to Qld and deliver 65 6 car passenger trains for the network including the Cross River Rail. Downer has squeezed Qld manufacturers out of the process. The Brisbane picket was in solidarity with the regional workers in Maryborough who lost out from this deal. ‘If you touch one of us, you touch all of us’ as the CFMEU states.
CFMEU Qld/NT Secretary Michael Ravbar was in Maryborough to meet with the workers and call for the Miles Government to intervene to secure blue collar manufacturing jobs.
‘For decades Queensland trains have been built with the highest-quality Queensland manufacturing glass. If Downer has its way, crucial elements of Queensland’s train program will be outsourced to low-paid workers overseas while a few local manufacturing workers pick up the crumbs.’
Last Monday, channel 9 broke a story about alleged corruption in the Victorian CFMEU. Since then, the Labor party, and other unions and the ACTU have failed to show solidarity with the CFMEU and have done their best to distance themselves from the union as a whole. The Victorian, New South Wales and Tasmanian Branches have been placed into administration,
The financial review ran a hit piece blaming the CFMEU for the governments housing crises. The article failed to mention the CFMEU led campaign to secure 53,000 affordable homes each year with a mega profits tax, given that the corporate profits of Australia’s largest companies are the biggest they have ever been.
And maybe, just maybe, instead of another ten hit pieces about a union not one journalist has ever bothered to learn anything about, or demonizing the labor movement generally as a threat to corporate capital, you could mention deaths. The deaths from silicosis, the deaths from heat stress, and the deaths from the Australian Labor Party supported genocidal war on Gaza. Last week the ICJ has issued a strong warning to any country supporting the illegal occupation of the occupied territories of Palestine by Israel. There was not one article about this in the mainstream media.
And I would like to ask the media, who is buying your silence, what in hell are you all thinking, when will this so called fourth estate return to any kind of morality, how much destruction will we be observing in the meantime, why do you deserve any respect at all, and where would you like us to put it? Our bloody tampons that is.
