Nicholas Way
Labor showdown
The Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), for many unions the most hated symbol of the Howard years, is still proving a political minefield for the Rudd Labor government.
The decision by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, to stick by her original decision and scrap the ABCC on February 1, 2010, angers employers, especially in the industrial hot-bed states of Victoria and Western Australia.
The unions, however, are frustrated by the delay and as a part of their campaign to bring forward the ABCC’s execution date are believed to be garnering support to have the Labor Party’s national conference (July 30 to August 1) pass a resolution to that effect.
A successful vote, while unlikely to change Gillard’s mind on the February deadline, would be politically embarrassing for the government.
The move is being spearheaded by the CFMEU, which is seeking support from left and rightwing unions for the resolution.
In all likelihood the resolution will fail to get the numbers. It might not even get to the floor of the conference given Labor’s penchant for micro managing its national showpiece. Certainly many of the 400 delegates, as well as state and territory leaders, will see little political sense in embarrassing the government in such a public forum.
That said, the CFMEU does enjoy support among parliamentary members, as well as the rank and file, who feel considerable disquiet with legislation that actively discriminates against one industry.
Harder heads in the federal ministry and caucus, however, while privately conceding that the ABCC in its current form cannot survive, are deeply worried about what might happen in Victoria and WA once it has been abolished, and are anxious to ensure its successor can exert its authority over this industry.
They are acutely aware of the capacity of these two branches to cause industrial mayhem as witnessed in Victoria during the lengthy West Gate Bridge dispute (Raising the West Gate stakes, May 7).
What worries them more is that it will be federal government funding for infrastructure projects that will create a more viable economic environment for the industry, in the process giving unions a greater capacity to wage industrial campaigns for improved wages and conditions and site allowances. The last thing a Labor government would want is a concerted wages push in construction at the very time many employees are being laid off or working shorter hours.
The CFMEU move should also worry the ACTU. At its triennial conference being held in Brisbane from June 2-4 it is believed the peak union body will present an economic blueprint to enhance its credentials to be part of the policy debate as Australia emerges from recession; having one of its key affiliates continuing to act like a throwback to the 1960s and 1970s hardly enhances the ACTU’s standing.
About 20 years ago, when the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was a rogue organisation, particularly in Victoria under the late Norm Gallagher’s leadership, the then leadership of the Building Workers Industrial Union, Tom McDonald and Stan Sharkey, argued that by bringing the BLF into its more disciplined ranks the worst of its industrial excesses would be curbed.
In WA and Victoria, at least, you would still have to ask this very pertinent question: who has taken over whom?
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