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Issue No. 149 | 23 August 2002 |
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Our Historical Mission
Interview: Something Smells Cole-Watch: Credibility Crisis Unions: Union Cities Industrial: Lib Men Gang Up Against Working Mums History: Eureka! East Timor: Don�t Rob Their Future Review: Black Chicks Say It All Poetry: Self Regulation
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Week in Review Bosswatch
 Shit SheetsSusan's Soccer Outrage
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News Cole to Hear of Criminal Takeover Conspiracy
Workers Online has learned that a Sydney rigging company director will tell the Building Industry Royal Commission of two meetings in Glebe, during mid-2000, in which plans were made to fund Craig Bates� campaign to unseat Andrew Ferguson as CFMEU state secretary. The Commission will hear that Tom Domican, variously described as "a colourful Sydney identity" or an "underworld figure", was present at the Toxteth Hotel and Valhalla Cafe gatherings. It will be alleged that Domican offered Bates $50,000 for every job he put the way of a specified crane company. In return, Bates agreed to push "all crane jobs" in Domican's direction. There will be allegations that various members of the groups were involved in extorting and laundering large sums of money and that Bates assured them money would go through a legitimate "fighting fund" in his name. The employer will testify that he made a $4000 donation to the Bates' election campaign, via a company cheque. Anti-CFMEU allegations from Bates and associate Martin Warner were heavily relied apon by counsel assisting, Nicholas Green, in opening comments when Commission hearings resumed in Sydney this week. Workers Rights First Cole Casualty Meanwhile, building unions fear major restrictions on their rights to police health and safety, and fight for entitlements when employers go belly-up, are in the wind During terse exchanges with Ferguson, Commissioner Terence Cole, described industrial action in support of worker entitlements as "extortion". The comments came as the commission investigated the CFMEU's success in obtaining more than $142,000, from major builders, for employees of a failed tileing company. In forwarding a cheque, a Multiplex boss wrote to the union, saying the payment was made "under duress", a spin rejected by Ferguson. Commissioner: "Do you get many letters saying you require payments under duress?" Ferguson: "Extremely rare. You've seen all the correspondence from the union. It's extremely rare." Commissioner: "Well, it's an allegation of extortion." Ferguson: "No it's not." Commissioner: "Payment under duress?" Ferguson: "I don't accept that." Commissioner: Do you not? Ferguson: "No, definitely not." Ferguson also rejected counsel assisting, Ron Gipp's, suggestion that workers should line up behind secured creditors when employers failed. "I think a lot of head contractors accept that moral argument in the industry, as opposed to the banks getting the money in front of workers and their families. I would like to see the law changed," Ferguson said. "The arrangement was to get the workers their entitlements, not to circumvent any law." Ferguson claimed that poor mathematics, and a failure to understand the settlement, by both the commissioner and counsel assisting had led to "distorted" and "inaccurate" media coverage of the issue. When he produced a calculator and offered to show them the error of their ways he was stopped by Cole who demanded, instead, a full written schedule. In an earlier exchange with a Workcover representative, Cole let it be known that he thought union policing of health and safety standards was "a very deep problem". His utterances drew a sharp response from the lawyer representing the NSW Government. "The conclusion that a union may not have a role to play in identification of safety issues, which you appear to have drawn, would not, with the greatest of respect, be an opinion shared by the majority of the community," Ms McColl countered. "With the best system in the world of government regulation of occupational health and safety, they (inspectors) cannot be everywhere. The role of the union must be an appropriate one to play in all of those circumstances, Commissioner, and the implicit assumption in your question is that it isn't appropriate." The threats to key areas of union activities came in the same week that Cole provided Government with interim findings, before hearing much of the union evidence. Amongst other things, he called for the establishment of an interim industry taskforce, with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Bisbane. Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott has said Government will act on Cole's recommendations.
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