CFMEU demands Labor scrap anti-union laws
Thousands of construction workers from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, along with some other unions, took to the streets on April 5 in a national day of action, organised by the Building Industry Group Unions (BIG).
BIG includes the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union (PPTEU).
Many hundreds if not thousands of building workers from Warrang/Sydney rallied in Belmore Park before marching to NSW Parliament. Their focus was for a ban on the use of silica in construction products.
The CFMEU has long been campaigning against “engineered stone” which they describe as “the asbestos of the 2020s”.
The ACTU said that more than half a million workers are exposed to silica dust every day on the job and more than 10,000 are predicted to be diagnosed with silicosis.
NSW CFMEU secretary Darren Greenfield told the rally that “Every day we wait, another worker dies”. He said the union would ask the new NSW Labor government for “a ban on silica in industry and an end to the state anti-union industrial laws”.
CFMMEU national secretary Chris Cain told the crowd that the NSW Labor government showed “When workers get together they can change governments”.
He added :
“If Labor governments don’t take notice of our demands, we will take action … We want real cost-of-living wage increases and good, safe jobs throughout industry.”
Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) Sydney branch secretary Paul Keating said:
“Now’s the time to start organising general strikes for industrial safety, real pay rises and the right to strike. The MUA stands fully with the construction unions over the dangers of silica. If the politicians won’t act, the MUA won’t unload the stuff off the ships in the first place.”
Keating described the Fair Work Ombudsman as “a tool of the bosses against the unions” and said that it and the Fair Work Act need to be abolished.
