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Issue No. 241 | 08 October 2004 |
That’s All Folks!
Interview: The Last Bastian Unions: High and Dry Security: Liquid Borders Industrial: No Bully For You History: Radical Brisbane International: No Vacancies Economics: Life After Capitalism Technology: Cyber Winners Poetry: Do It Yourself Poetry Review: Hard Labo(u)r
Politics Parliament The Soapbox The Locker Room Parliament Postcard
No Credit
Labor Council of NSW |
News Strike Three and We’re Out
Piling Contractors Queensland moved its employees to new entity, Piling Contractors Australia, in a last ditch bid to defeat delegate protection clauses negotiated with construction unions.
The move was supported by the Master Builders Association but came unstuck after 10 site delegates fronted the Federal Industrial Relations Commission, last Wednesday. The company backed off and the delegate returned to work on the motorway extension, pending a meeting of the Board of Reference, established to deal with issues of alleged discrimination against representatives. The decision averted the possibility of further industrial disruption after workers struck for 24 hours, last week, in support of all three delegates and demands for better safety standards. CFMEU delegates from subcontractors, Nace, Piling Contractors and McCourt Dando Trenches had been sacked in a 24-hour blitz against union organisation on the Abigroup-Leightons project. One worker was dismissed, by phone, in the middle of a mass meeting considering the sackings of his colleagues. CFMEU organiser, Dave Kelly, said the trio had been active in defending workmates' rights, retrieving back pay and promoting safety. He called their reinstatements "victories for justice and common sense". "Up to 1000 workers from a number of unions supported these delegates, the jobs they were doing and delegates' rights," Kelly said. "They stood united behind their delegates and that's what got us home. Without that support all our fellows would have got the spear." Members of the CFMEU, ETU, AWU, AMWU and TWU were involved in the campaign. The reinstatements of the Nace and McCourt Dando representatives had been achieved at NSW IRC hearings before Commissioner McKenna. Kelly said it was credit to Kavanagh and the NSW system that a "long, protracted industrial dispute had been nipped in the bud". There have been tense times on the orbital project with unions fighting to establish organisation in the face of a concerted push to drive them out. Kelly suggested the stand-off over delegates' rights could mark a watershed in how industrial relations would proceed on the project. "The principal contractors have agreed to a proper procedure for the recognition of delegates and to work to have their subbies follow procedures that will protect their rights," he said.
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