Industrial Anarchy !

Perhaps the least law abiding union in Australia is the Construction Forestry, Mining and Energy Union - known by the acronym CFMEU. This union has it's tentacles firmly enmeshed in all aspects of the building trade and literally has the ability to bankrupt any contractor who fails to negotiate a deal to ensure industrial peace during construction periods.

Years previously, a favourite tactic was to call a sudden strike in the middle of a concrete pour.  To gain structural strength, a floor of a high rise building needs to be poured in a single operation and if this is disrupted, the entire pour has to be jack-hammered away and the work on that floor restarted.  The cost is immense - and usually the strike is on a minor pretext to deliberately reinforce the union's demands.

Building firms fear the CFMEU and it's power has led to coercion where workers are actually disadvantaged because employers are forced to accept making illicit payments to their union for political purposes in exchange for workplace peace.   Almost any sort of deal is possible - if the right amount of money changes hands.

All this came to a head when the government ordered a Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption. There have been calls for the man heading this Royal Commission to stand down because he was slated to be the guest speaker at a Liberal party event, but that hurdle has  been cleared. Now a new issue has arisen which strikes directly at the awesome powers invested in the hands of a Royal Commission.

It ordered the CFMEU to hand over the management documents that pertain to the running of the union and we now learn that these have been deliberately not only withheld, but were trucked away and dumped at a landfill.   A microphone recorded a conversation between senior officers of the union in which it was revealed that seven tonnes of incriminating evidence was dumped and that a truck receipt was produced to confirm that this had happened.  It was also revealed that more tonnes of records remained in storage.

There is a court ordered stay of execution on this evidence being examined by investigators, but the hand over order remains and it seems that this deliberate destruction of evidence is in sheer defiance of the Royal Commission.  The entire building industry is waiting to see just what action will be forthcoming.  The last thing this country needs is a disruptive union battle in the workplace but this is sheer criminality that the Royal Commission can not ignore.

In the opinion of many people, this is a showdown that was both inevitable - and a long time in coming.   In particular, the CFMEU has run roughshod over the law  - and been getting away with it.
There has been timidity evident from both politicians and the police when it comes to illegal union practices and a " don't rock the boat " mentality has prevailed.  Fear has been a contributing factor demanding acceptance of unsavoury deals by both employers and employees - and the power of union officials has been paramount.

Now it all depends if the Royal Commission is prepared to carry through and strike down the power of union bosses to run their crime empire - and if the politicians have the courage to standup to the belligerence of the union rank and file - and their political  supporters ?