Victorian construction unions threaten strike over ‘sustained attack’ on wage deal | Australian unions

Victoria’s construction unions are threatening a strike of up to three days if employers do not stop a “sustained assault” on wages and conditions after the union was placed into administration.

The state secretary of the electricity union, Troy Gray, made the threat at a rally in Melbourne on Wednesday, sending union members into the streets in anger for the second day of action since Labor and the Coalition unions joined forces to create powers to appoint a manager.

The government was fuelled by allegations of criminal and corrupt behaviour within the Construction Forestry Maritime Employees union. These claims were supported by an interim report by an independent investigator appointed by the union, which concluded that the Victoria branch was ‘trapped in a cycle of lawlessness’ and ‘infiltrated’ by motorcycle gangs and organised crime figures.

But Gray told Guardian Australia he was “sick of hearing” about former Victorian CFMEU secretary John Setka and allegations of misconduct by a small minority he called “one per centre”.

The Fair Work Commission has delayed new proposed union pay deals to check employers were not being coerced into them. Gray said 4,000 CFMEU members were being given a “5% pay cut” because employers who had agreed to interim pay increases had withdrawn them “given the impasse”.

Gray alleged that some employers refused to meet with union representatives and refused to sign new wage agreements, leading to “exploitation” of construction workers.

“If there are employers who are going to use these circumstances to attack wages and conditions by not signing new EBAs (Enterprise Barrage Agreements), there will be a third rally, and the rally could decide (on unprotected action),” Gray said.

Gray said union members “do not want to strike for 72 hours” but that would be an option considered at another meeting next Wednesday if the “sustained, orchestrated attack” on union wage agreements continues.

“We are not going to allow 100 years of union membership to go to waste. The message today was a boundary: we have had enough.”

Asked what it would take to avoid a strike, Gray said only six wage deals had been struck so far out of the 800 employers in Victoria who would normally sign up. He suggested unions would “like to see 200-300” wage deals struck in the next six weeks or so.

Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Michaelia Cash said Wednesday’s protests had brought Sydney and Melbourne to a “standstill” and accused the Albanian government of “losing control of the construction sector”.

She called on Industrial Relations Minister Murray Watt to make an application to the Fair Work Commission or use his personal powers to suspend or end the threatened unprotected strike action.

Watt was asked about that possibility on Wednesday, but he said he would “have to think about it” because it was “the first time I’ve heard of it.”

“I think it’s important to note that a meeting held in Melbourne today is very much about an EBA industry dispute and not about the CFMEU board itself,” Watt told the National Press Club in Canberra.

“Employees have the right to take protected measures under our laws.”

Watt defended the independent industrial adjudicator’s decision to pay “a little more attention than normal” to construction pay agreements, but noted that the administrator had “spoken to the Fair Work Commission to come up with a method to get those EBAs through as quickly as possible while ensuring that all the requirements were met”.

Watt said he was “confident” they would now be approved. He said some applications had already been approved, although the FWC website shows no applications have been processed in the past two months.

Watt said Labor hopes to reform the culture of the construction industry by reconvening the National Construction Forum, which will meet again in October.

Watt said the Albanian government will order a review of the labor relations legislation, which should be completed by the end of January, but will not implement any further reforms during this time.

Asked whether Labor would release all of its industrial relations policy before the election, Watt said: “I think governments always take things into (an election) and then deliver additional things after they’ve been elected, and of course you have to judge for yourself whether you think that’s within the spirit of your mandate or not.”