Will Tracey: Look for the election agenda behind the overwrought attacks on union

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Will Tracey: Look for the election agenda behind the overwrought attacks on union

A little over a month ago, a report aired about alleged criminality and *********** in the construction sector.

The report made for good television, with all the elements of a good ****** story: gangs, *********, colourful characters, and some unlikeable blokes to cheer against.

It has also pushed the labour movement and the working people they are supposed to represent, to a moment of truth.

Labor, as the party of social ******* which agitates for change and fights to protect the rights of working people, must be a moral exemplar.

As a unionist, I acknowledge that unions are held to a higher moral standard. The bar is set high, and I am OK with that.

The fact that extraordinary action has been taken against a union of which only two officials nationwide have been charged with a ****** and one other is being investigated, is concerning because I also believe in natural justice and procedural fairness and their universal application in our *********** democracy.

If a ****** was committed, the individuals involved should be punished to the full extent of the law.

I have no time for criminality and no sympathy for anyone who puts personal gain above the union movement.

Those individuals do, however, have the right for their case to be heard in court. And as everyone — including the Labor Party — takes their kick at the CFMEU (to which my union, the Maritime Union of Australia, is affiliated), we need to pause for a moment and ask a few questions.

How can this union, which was in the early stages of the Federal Court process and was seeking to understand the unproven allegations that had been made against it, have been immediately and forcibly taken over by an external administrator?

The union was not even allowed time to develop a legal response and was working co-operatively to serve the applications on the large number (269 in all) of respondents.

As a result of this extraordinary action, over 200 officials of the CFMEU have been sacked from their elected positions without any proven wrongdoing or legal recourse.

In the process, they have been denied a fundamental right. Special provisions also apply which prohibit these sacked officials from taking up paid employment in other unions.

This abnegation of natural justice and process has resulted, for example, in the removal of the three respected member-appointed directors of Cbus, one of Australia’s most successful industry superannuation funds. This is an unprecedented action against unions and workers, and yet it was enabled through legislation — which can be appropriately described as “union-busting” — by a Federal Labor Government.

In WA, there has been no conviction nor formal allegation of wrongdoing of the WA branch of the CFMEU. Yet suspending the CFMEU from the WA branch of the ALP removes workers who have literally built this great State from representation in our political system.

It also puts further psychological distance between working West Australians and the party that exists to represent them. And if the ALP is not genuinely representing working people, what is the point of it?

Unions broadly look to achieve a couple of things: safety for workers, and a fair price for their labour. We are all in this together and all Australians who contribute social and economic value should be rewarded.

They also deserve to be in a safe workplace and return to their families unharmed after their shift. I don’t think too many Australians would disagree there is honour in fighting for these outcomes.

Leading into the Federal election, we’re going to hear a lot (seriously — a lot) about cost-of-living pressures.

There will be a smorgasbord of policies, each offering some temporary relief. But the gap between the affluent and the rest will only be reduced through economic policy which looks at structural change, and a strong union movement arguing for real wage growth.

There is a direct, proven correlation between wealth inequality and declining union membership, in Australia as elsewhere.

So, action against the CFMEU may be politically expedient. It might neutralise predictable political ******* from conservatives who in any case are ultimately on the side of capital — not of workers. But let’s not start with talk of “fit and proper persons”.

The ultimate hypocrisy of what has happened to the CFMEU is if the same standards were applied to big business, there would be a few prominent corporate types on the way out, and Business News might need some different copy for their profile pieces. But as I acknowledged earlier, they are not.

We have seen a royal commission into the banking, superannuation and financial services industries demonstrate appalling revelations of entrenched corrupt corporate behaviour and misconduct. The aged-care Royal Commission saw some of the most vulnerable in our community subjected to ********* levels of care and, in some instances, ******.

Enquiries into Crown Casino revealed organised facilitation of underworld money laundering operations and the Robodebt program saw marginalised Australians systematically attacked by their own government with some being driven to ********.

No administration, mass terminations or denial of legal rights in any of this. Just double standards writ large by the ALP.

This is a soul-searching moment for the labour movement, at a time when many West Aussies are looking for a greater share in the wealth we have made together — and many workers are wondering who in our political system is truly representing them.

Our movement needs courage and leadership more than ever, to give a little reminder that unions must exist to get a fair wage for our labour, and the right to a safe workplace so we can go back to our families when we knock off.

Will Tracey is secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia WA branch

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