Three months ago, Australia’s Labor government rushed extraordinary legislation through Parliament to force one of the nation’s largest trade unions, the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU), into administration. The state seized our union’s finances, sacked our democratically elected leadership, and disenfranchised tens of thousands of unionized workers across the country.
As the national president of the construction division of the CFMEU, I was one of 268 union officials to be fired from an elected position. We are now classified as “removed persons.” The legislation explicitly denies my comrades and I the right to appeal. None of us have been convicted of a crime, and the allegations leveled against a few officials have yet to be tested in a court of law.
The administrator has also been granted broad powers to change the CFMEU’s rules without the endorsement of members, to sell union assets, and to hire and fire staff. If the administrator decides to sack one of the union’s membership assistants, receptionists, or industrial officers — for whatever reason — those employees also have no right to appeal.
It is, by some measure, the most draconian anti-union legislation imposed in decades. It is more insidious than the attacks on workers and unions launched by the conservative governments of John Howard, Tony Abbott, and Malcolm Turnbull.
The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL), one of Australia’s leading civil liberties groups, immediately raised “serious concerns” with the Fair Work…
Auteur: Jade Ingham
