
Issue No 58		16 June 2000

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

News

Building Industry Braces for Post-Games Slump

The head of the NSW building union has warned that the industry faces a post-Games slump that will wipe 25 per cent of the jobs from the industry.

CFMEU construction division state secretary Andrew Ferguson has told Workers Online that thousands of building workers will flood the market, despite the Carr Government's post-Olympics public works program.

"The building industry is very much boom or bust, or feast or famine - it's always been like that, this time around it appears that the State Government is going to be making a significant contribution post Olympics to some very major infrastructure projects, so that will moderate the cycle to a certain extent," Ferguson says.

"But nevertheless we anticipate a 25 per cent downturn to building works, with in particular, unskilled labourers being displaced from the industry."

Ferguson says tradespeople have got better prospects of employment but that builders' labourers will simply get displaced in the industry and go into other industries or unemployment.

He says the CFMEU has been developing strategies to help worker cope with the downturn, including Building Workers Assistance Centre which helps place unemployed workers in jobs.

The union's training company, Comet, will also provide assistance to members that want to be re-trained for other industries.

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  Issue 58 contents

Interview: After the Gold Rush
NSW building union leader Andrew Ferguson on life after the Olympics and why Che Guevara is his political hero.

Unions: MUA Women's Policy Back on Course
A hard hitting report by the Maritime Union's women's delegate Sue Gajdos prompts the union to, once again, promote its female members.

Politics: Raising the Rafters
Opposition leader Kim Beazley delivered a stirring address to last weekend's NSW ALP State Conference. Here's every word of it.

History: Time and Tide
Greg Patmore surveys the themes of Working Lives in Regional Australia in this introduction to the latest issue of 'Labour History'

International: Fair in the Land of the Free
More than 20,000 immigrant workers, union members and community and religious leaders packed a Los Angeles Sports Arena on June 10 in support of immigrant workers' rights.

Environment: Life's a Beach
Workers are invited to join an environmental campaign to protect the coastal communities and coastline from exploitation by multinationals.

Satire: More Pacific Coups Forecast
The popular holiday resort of Great Keppel Island is bracing itself for a bloody coup, following the rash of rebel uprisings in other parts of the Pacific.

Review: At the Barricades
Denis Evans' photo essay on the Patrick dispute captures the camaraderie on the Melbourne picket lines - solidarity that, like solder, welded workers and their communities together into a human barricade.

Crackdown on Fiji Workers Intensifies
Building Industry Braces for Post-Games Slump
Call Centre Battle Hots Up
More Sackings Spark Entitlements Showdown
Carr Establishes Labor Hire Inquiry
High Court Puts Workers At Reith's Mercy
Miners Hit the Streets Over Death Threats
Unions Urged to Reignite Republic Debate
Tips Rip-Off Sparks Hotel Picket
Community Workers to Lay Siege to Parliament
Water Workers Accept 14% Pay Rise
Counselling for Workplace Accidents
Korean Food Festival is Union Business
Che Helps Doctors Save Lives
Maude Barlow Public Lecture - Sydney June 27