I just received welcome email for my daughter from the SDA, I had used my email for my daughter's initial job application form. She is pretty sure she did not join but there was plenty of paperwork for her onboarding. So, to the question at hand regardless of her signing something is it legal for them to sign her up without a parent giving consent?

The national secretary of RAFFWU is paying himself $138,000 per year. His union has (approximately) less than 3000 members and they have negotiated one (1) enterprise agreement in their 8 history. Where is the members money going? Where are the results for this immense pay packet?

Registered organisations are required by law to disclose how much their highest paid officers receive. The SDA's disclosure statements are available here.

For the financial year ending 30 June 2022 ('FY22'), the National Secretary-Treasurer received a total package (remuneration + benefits) of $275,953. For FY23, this increased to $286,584 (3.85% increase). For FY22, the National Assistant Secretary 's total package was $221,756. For FY23, this increased to $249,568 (+12.54%). The central office's FY24 disclosure statement isn't available yet.

In FY22, the State Secretary/Treasurer of the Victorian branch received a total of $216,312 (including the money paid by the central office). It increased to $221,784 in FY23 (+2.53%). In FY24, it increased again to $267,641 (+20.68%) (assuming he still receives the $5k paid by the central office, as occurred in FY22 and FY23).

Let's put this into context by comparing this to other unions who's coverage overlaps with the SDA's. The AMIEU's Federal Secretary, who is also the Queensland Branch Secretary, received a total package of $149,569 in FY23. The RAFFWU's Secretary received a total of $137,166 in FY24.

Let's also compare this to what the SDA's members are paid under SDA-negotiated enterprise agreements. In FY23, a Woolworths Retail Employee Level 1 (who would be one of the 'better' paid SDA members) working 38 hours per week at their base rate of pay earnt $46,948.20 for the year. In FY24, they earnt $49,647.52 (+5.75%). In FY25, they will earn $51,509.12 (+3.75%).

TLDR; the SDA's members 'enjoy' some of the lowest wages in the nation while the SDA enriches its bosses with outrageously disproportionate salaries.

Am currently in a distribution centre for kmart who practically forced us to sign up for the SDA on our induction day. With my own research I've found out that they aren't worth my support or money and primarily serve the employers and not the employee.

Struggling to find a union which represents workers in warehousing/logistics industries since most are for retail and fast food. Any suggestions of any I can go with?

Good afternoon, comrades .

Looking for union members' experience in methods of communication amongst other members in your union. Does your union have Slack, WhatsApp or similar for members to communicate with one another and for the union to share updates, events etc with relevant groups?

Any feedback or ideas would be much appreciated. Thank you!

I resigned from my union in writing earlier this year after several years of disappointment and disillusionment with said union - EBAs each worse than the last, being in businesses’ pockets etc. At the time I resigned, I had a payment of union fees bounce just prior and just never bothered rectifying it because I knew I intended to resign and I’m no longer in the same industry anyway. I’m still being contacted to rectify these fees - will not paying them get me into any kind of trouble? As far as I can see, I’m not paying for a service I’m not getting any more (and was arguably never getting in the first place), but don’t want to shoot myself in the foot financially in future if that’s where it’s going to head.

Hi comrades, looking for opinions and/or experience with union merch.

I work for a union which represents a broad array of different sectors. I feel like our merch is outdated and a poor use of money; too much novelty plastic garbage IMO. I'd like to see the union reduce the amount of merch and increase the quality and be more thoughtful and strategic with future merch. My idea is to collaborate with relevant groups and industries we represent to make tote bags which could also be available for purchase with proceeds going to the organisation we have collaborated with. New members should receive a union pin/badge and an ethically made tote which promotes the values of the movement.

Who has any experience or helpful input with union merch? What has been effective and useful for the union you work for or as a union member?

Thank you!

ETU NSW - Ausgrid

Ausgrid workers walked off the job last Tuesday (15/10) and rallied in Sydney and Newcastle. Workers have voted down two agreements put forward by management and the union has flagged fair wages to keep up with the cost of living; improved allowances and a fair career progression system being the key issues still to be agreed on. A bargaining meeting was expected to be held last Wednesday (16/10.). 

AMWU/CEPU Tasmania - Saputo

The Saputo dispute continues with workers on strike for 17 weeks fighting for pay parity with Victorian Saputo workers. The AMWU reported last week that “after two productive meetintgs, Saputo has now withdrawn its agreement to parity.”  Workers have requested a boycott of Saputo products.  There is also a strike fund to donate to.

UWU - Grill’d

Approximately 20 workers at a Grill’d restaurant in Flinders Lane, Melbourne took 12 hours of strike action on Saturday (19/10). The action has been claimed as the first protected strike action undertaken by fast food workers in Australia… difficult to factcheck, but I haven’t been able to find any evidence to dispute this claim. Workers were joined by around 100 supporters outside the restaurant for a rally and press conference before heading off to talk to other Grill’d workers across Melbourne’s CBD. Workers at Grill’d are fighting for better wages and action to tackle Grill’d’s long-term strategy of using dodgy traineeships to keep wages low. Grill’d has put forward a crappy proposed agreement which UWU is encouraging workers to vote down. UWU is also keen to get in touch with as many Grill’d workers as they can - if you, a friend or family member work at Grill’d tell them to get in touch with UWU via this form. Thanks to the legends at RAFFWU for explaining that the fact that Grill’d serves alcohol is the reason Grill’d is an UWU site, and not RAFFWU. RAFFWU members were present at the strike action in solidarity. 

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HACSU Tasmania - Virtus Health

Embryologists, nurses and administrative staff walked off the job at TasIVF and Hobart Specialist Day Hospital for 1 hour on Monday (21/10). Workers have been in a long running dispute with Virtus Health who are refusing to increase wages to match mainland workers.  Workers want a fair deal, and believe pay parity with the mainland will also address chronic staff shortages. Virtus have also threatened to dock the pay of workers participating in administrative bans. Workers are prepared to escalate their industrial action to achieve pay parity and action on workload.

CPSU Vic - Port Phillip Prison

Workers at a maximum security prison in Melbourne, thought to be Port Phillip Prison, commenced a range of bans and industrial action on Monday (21/10). Workers have implemented administrative and paperwork bans, a ban on redeployments, and will refuse to comply with the G4S policy of not speaking to the media.  Workers have also started arriving at work for security screening at the start time of their shift, not earlier. Reporting in the Herald Sun isn’t clear, but prisoners will be kept in lockdown for additional time each day - either 30 minutes or 1 hour. I wish the industrial action was geared purely towards inconveniencing the bosses, rather than more lockdown time for prisoners. Prisons are horrible, being locked in a cell is horrible, and most prisoners are workers too. Perhaps more imaginative bans can be implemented that put the pressure, and the pain, on the bosses. Workers at Port Phillip Prison initially implemented industrial action in May. Port Phillip Prison is scheduled to close in 2025, the EBA expired in December 2023.

NTEU - ANU

ANU Vice-Chancellor Genevive Bell has written to workers at the university, asking them to consider “forgoing” a 2.5% wage increase scheduled to be paid in December. Just days after the request, the university announced 108 job losses; in addition to 50 jobs cut from the College of Health and Medicine earlier in the month. This is all part of a restructure with ANU claiming they need to make $250 million in savings by the end of 2025. Workers and students rallied against the cuts last Wednesday (16/0). A ballot of workers would need to be held to vary the EBA in order to cancel the wage increase. The NTEU doesn’t believe the VC should try to vary the EBA, and would encourage members to vote no if such a ballot was held. The union is also calling for ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop to be sacked after her comments that inferred workers were responsible for “inefficiencies” that caused budget issues. The current EBA at ANU was approved in late 2023 and included 2.5% wage increases in December 2023, July 2024; December 2024; July 2025; December 2025; 18 June 2026. 

PSA NSW - NSW Public Servants

In last week’s report I speculated that despite PSA members voting to accept the NSW Government’s salaries offer, that industrial action would probably continue for Sheriffs Officers; Fisheries Officers and Child Protection workers. In the case of the sheriffs, industrial action was to cease on Monday (21/10). I don’t have any details about other NSW public servants… let me know if you do! I am particularly curious about the Fisheries Officers.

AMWU Victoria - Brockman

The dispute at Brockman continues with a full day stoppage last Friday (18/10) with more half day stoppages scheduled for this week.  Workers are fighting for a fair pay deal. 

CPSU/CSA WA - Child Protection Workers

Child protection officers from Joondalup to Bunbury walked off the job last Thursday (17/10), with around 150 workers rallying at Parliament House in Perth. In late September, the CPSU/CSA voted to accept the WA government’s wages offer of 12.5% over 3 years. But workers want action from the government on under resourcing and the 1000 child protection cases that have not had a dedicated caseworker since December. 

AEU Victoria - TAFE

AEU members have continued their rolling stop work actions with rallies at offices of MPs including Premier Jacinta Allen and Minister for Skills and TAFE Gayle Tierney. TAFE teachers are fighting for action on excessive workloads; secure jobs; recognition for qualifications and a decent pay rise.

CFMEU - Administration and ACTU

Last Wednesday (16/10) a national meeting of 23 union leaders, mostly from building industry unions, met to discuss the administration of the CFMEU. The meeting resolved to run “political, social and industrial campaigns” to fight attacks on union democracy; the forced administration; and the attack on construction workers’ wages and conditions. The meeting also resolved to hold a Trade Unions for Democracy Summit on Monday 9 December which will consider the creation of an alternative to the ACTU; campaigns to support and restore union democracy; and future political funding. Prior to the meeting, media reports shared that both Mark Irving, the man appointed as administrator of the CFMEU and Sally McManus, Secretary of the ACTU who backed the administration were taking extra security measures, inferring that threats had been made against them. So, how complicit is the ACTU in the administration of the CFMEU? It is understood that Mark Irving’s right hand man is long-term union bureaucrat Michael Flinn. Who is Michael Flinn? Michael Flinn was Sally McManus’s deputy at the ASU in NSW for 8 years, both left the union in 2015. Michael Flinn’s next appointment was at the CFMEU Cross Divisional National Office working as National Executive Officer to then National Secretary, Michael O’Connor. Michael Flinn then migrated across to the ACTU to again work with McManus initially as Director of Growth. His last known position at the ACTU is “Head of Special Projects”, and seemingly the current Special Project priority of the ACTU is supporting the administration of the CFMEU. Michael Flinn’s close relationships with Sally McManus and Michael O’Connor should have made him an untenable choice for the administrator. Particularly when the Manufacturing Division of the CFMEU, led by Michael O’Connor, is in the process of a demerger application with the FWC to ballot Manufacturing Division members about leaving the CFMEU. The million dollar question is how much direct oversight and input the ACTU has had over the administration of the CFMEU, and the appointments it has made.

CPSU Tasmania - Community Corrections Workers

Community Corrections workers at the Department of Justice in Tasmania held a lunch time stop work last Thursday (17/10) to demand action on chronic under-resourcing and poor workplace culture. In addition to unmanageable workloads, important programs like Family Violence Offender Intervention are being impacted by indefinite delays. These workplace issues do not just affect staff, but the whole community.

UWU - SCT Logistics

Workers at SCT Logistics commenced strike action last Thursday (17/10). Workers at the specialist rail freight logistics company are fighting for a pay increase to keep up with the cost of living and for better job security. The union has started a petition to exert pressure on management, and notes that the company reported $512.7 million in revenue and $13.3 million in net profit after tax in 2023. Time to pay up!

HSU WA - Public sector health workers

The HSU has responded to the release of the WA Health Workforce Strategy by demanding the Cook Government make “a fair, respectful third offer”. The union is holding paid meetings over the next few weeks to discuss the campaign - so I expect we will have to wait for the conclusion of those meetings before there is any progress in this dispute, unless the government does put forward a decent deal.

WAPU - WA Police 

Since August, cops in WA have been taking “low level” industrial action (starting and finishing at rostered times and taking meal breaks). This has now escalated and includes participating in a daily standup briefing at the beginning of shifts; completing one job before accepting another; issuing warnings where appropriate; prioritising operation service delivery over Ministerial response and conducting “welfare checks” on roadside speed cameras. Cops have rejected one government offer in August and are on track to reject another shortly. The initial log of claims demands a 2 year agreement with an 8.5% pay increase in the first year, and 5% in the second year. 

JEERS: Joe de Bruyn - CHEERS: ACU Students

In news surprising to no one that has ever encountered Joe de Bruyn, the former leader of the SDA made a terrible speech at an ACU graduation ceremony where he was bestowed with an honorary degree. The speech traversed de Bruyn’s holy trinity of issues: abortion; IVF and same-sex marriage, and led to a pretty comprehensive walkout by attendees. An email to students after the event noted “we did encourage Mr de Bruyn to reconsider his speech through the lens of the graduating students’ achievements, hopes and aspirations. We are disappointed that the speech was not what most of our graduates would expect on an occasion like this.” This cop out proves the organisers were well aware of the risks of giving de Bruyn a platform (and an honorary degree), but decided to do it anyway. Shameful behaviour from ACU which is a Catholic university, but also a public university. Effected graduates have been offered a full refund of graduation fees, and confidential counselling is available for graduates and staff impacted. In addition to the walkout, ACU students and unionists from the ANMF, AEU, IEU and RAFFWU held a small rally and speak out at ACU on Tuesday afternoon. 

IEU - IGGS

The EBA for workers at Ipswich Girls Grammar School has been approved by the FWC. Workers voted down two proposed agreements and took strike action in June. Workers had been fighting for a Cost of Living Adjustment payment, a new automatic step for experienced teachers and flexible access to leave. I’ve had a quick look at the agreement, and I can’t see anything about a Cost of Living Adjustment, but they have won wage increases of 13-14% over 3 years. I hope the teachers are happy with their agreement. 

USU - Kiama Council

A bit late to the party on this one, but a great win shared with me by a reader this week (thank you!). Workers at Kiama Council had been struggling with a myriad of issues including being underpaid, overworked and safety conditions. The Council refused to act. In August, workers voted to stop work and picket council headquarters. After just 30 minutes of picketing, Council folded and agreed to pay all outstanding entitlements with back pay; grant days in lieu for every shift workers were forced to work within rosters that were in breach of the Award; and to address all OHS issues. Workers have now been paid what they are owed. A great demonstration of the power of strike action!

That’s all I’ve got this week. Thanks to readers who shared disputes (and wins!) with me this week. If something is kicking off at your workplace or in your industry or union - please feel free to get in touch! No dispute too big, no dispute too small!

Find Sarah's weekly report here: https://disputesreport.substack.com/p/industrial-disputes-and-news-23-october

Hi,

I just started a new job and get paid a base rate of 30 doing epoxy floor installations (trainee). I have no experience.

Afternoon shift that start after 10 am but before 8 pm is 115% penalty rate.

Shifts that start after 8pm and before 6 am- 115%

I’m not sure what is considered overtime? Because the times to do an epoxy job are unpredictable we don’t have a set shift, it’s like concrete in the way we can’t stop what we are doing and go home.

Thanks,

The root cause of this economic stagnation and rampant profiteering is the primacy of the shareholder. We now have a predatory business model holding sway!

The prime directive is deliver bigger dividends and a higher share price year on year USING ANY MEANS NECESSARY so screwing over customer workers and the general public is legitamised!

Addressing this issue will have a domino effect on everything.

Need to get some social benefit from business and make them pay taxes, pay decent wages and stop screwing their customers in the name of profit!

Im not on allot of social media apart from reddit and i can't seem to find out information in advance of the protests. If someone could point me in the right direction that would be appreciated, i would really like to be able to attend the next one.

Above all, what is required is the mobilisation of broad layers of the working class in a political struggle against Labor and the entire framework of the Fair Work Act industrial legislation and the courts that enforce it.

In building such a counter-offensive, workers will have to break free from the straitjacket imposed by the union apparatus. The majority of Australia’s unions, in lockstep with the Labor government, the Coalition and the building corporations, have fully supported the attack on the construction union and its 80,000 members.

Australia: Build rank-and-file committees on building sites! End the Labor government’s CFMEU administration, defend wages and conditions! - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

The appointment of an administrator to run the construction division of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) is a blatant attack on the rights of building workers. With extraordinary speed, the Labor government has carried out one of the most sweeping attacks on the working class in decades, placing an entire organisation and its 80,000 members under the rule of a quasi-dictator answerable to the state.

The pretext that this is about cleansing the union of rogue elements is a fraud. The corruption allegations, completely untested and unsubstantiated, are merely a front. The real aim is to pave the way for major construction companies to gut wages and conditions across the building industry.  

The construction union has been targeted because doubts have emerged in the ruling class over its capacity to adequately suppress the demands of a historically militant section of the workforce. While still far short of the rising cost of living, the 5–6 percent annual pay rises in recent CFMEU deals are considered unacceptably high amid an economic downturn.

This is an attack directed against the wages, conditions and democratic rights of the entire working class. If it is allowed to succeed, the administration of the CFMEU will serve as a blueprint for future attacks against any and all sections of workers.

The SEP stands squarely behind the tens of thousands of workers who have turned out to rallies, showing their determination to fight this anti-democratic travesty. State control of the CFMEU’s construction division cannot be allowed to stand! 

But the big-business Labor government’s offensive will not be defeated through sporadic “community protests” organised by the ousted CFMEU leaders and their cronies in the other building union bureaucracies. Their sole perspective and aim is to restore the highly paid positions and privileges of the sacked construction union officials.

The fight against the administrator must be directed at winning real improvements to building workers’ wages, conditions and job security, not reinstalling the same bureaucrats who have overseen their erosion over the past three decades.

This means construction workers need to take matters into their own hands. A network of rank-and-file committees must be built at all major worksites and throughout the industry as the means through which workers can democratically organise to fight for their own needs and rights.

In the first instance, these committees must prepare a bold campaign of strikes and other industrial action demanding the removal of the administrator and the repeal of the latest draconian legislation. Any attempt by employers to tear up, modify or circumvent existing agreements should be answered with indefinite stoppages.

This struggle must be broadened beyond the building industry. A powerful appeal can be made to workers everywhere: The fight against Labor’s attack on the CFMEU is a fight for the wages, conditions and democratic rights of the entire working class.  

This should include a turn to the hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers around the country, including health workers and educators, who have all been slugged with real pay cuts as part of Labor’s wage-slashing austerity agenda.

Above all, what is required is the mobilisation of broad layers of the working class in a political struggle against Labor and the entire framework of the Fair Work Act industrial legislation and the courts that enforce it.

In building such a counter-offensive, workers will have to break free from the straitjacket imposed by the union apparatus. The majority of Australia’s unions, in lockstep with the Labor government, the Coalition and the building corporations, have fully supported the attack on the construction union and its 80,000 members.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has played a central role in the anti-democratic operation from the start, endorsing unproven media allegations against the CFMEU, expelling the union, and collaborating with Labor behind the scenes on the administration process.

The open complicity of the ACTU in the Labor government’s move to effectively destroy a major industrial union and strip workers of basic workplace rights is revealing,  but it is not an aberration.

The ACTU and its constituent unions—including, until two months ago, the CFMEU—have been at the forefront of every major attack on the working class for the past four decades.

The ACTU-Labor Accords of the 1980s provided for the deregulation of the economy, the destruction of whole sections of industry and the decimation of hundreds of thousands of jobs. This was followed in the early 1990s with the introduction of enterprise bargaining, splitting workers into individual workplaces and establishing the framework for unions to ram through one sell-out agreement after another.

Building upon this, Labor’s 2009 Fair Work Act imposed harsh anti-strike laws, upon which the union apparatus has relied ever since to suppress the struggles of workers. The majority of Australia’s unions are now defending Labor’s latest Fair Work amendments—to crush the CFMEU—just as all unions have supported every pro-business iteration of the legislation since its introduction.

This includes the CFMEU, as well as the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union (PPTEU) and Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), which now claim to oppose the Labor government’s attack.

Their rhetorical denunciations of the Labor government and talk of a break with the ACTU are designed to provide a militant veneer for their real objective: Defending the status quo ante and restoring the privileged positions of their ousted mates in the CFMEU bureaucracy.

This was starkly expressed at the August 27 rally in Melbourne, where a motion was moved demanding that sacked construction union officials be allowed to retain their positions on the boards of the industry superannuation funds they jointly control with high-ranking building industry executives.

This was a slap in the faces of the 40,000 workers before them, who had rallied to fight for their wages, conditions and democratic rights, not to defend the bureaucrats’ cosy relationship with the financial elite.

The privileges enjoyed by union leaders are their reward for enforcing the dictates of governments and corporations for decades, against the demands of workers. They are now seeking to restore their role as a highly compensated industrial police force, keeping workers tied to Labor and the Fair Work framework.

Because their whole existence is predicated on their suppression of the class struggle, the bureaucrats remain hostile to the actual mobilisation of workers, even when they themselves are under attack.

That is why not a single strike was called against the administration process in the six weeks during which it was prepared. Only after the deed was done, and they had no other option, did the ousted CFMEU leadership call workers out, and then, only for a brief rally.

Instead, they have engaged in one backroom manoeuvre after another, wheeling and dealing behind the scenes with the Labor government and the pro-business Fair Work Commission. The bureaucrats had no objection to the union being placed under administration, as long as they were allowed to hold on to their jobs.

The symbol of this perspective, to which the ousted leaders aspire, is CFMEU National Secretary Zach Smith, who remains in this ($380,000 per annum) position, now as an errand boy for the state-appointed administrator.

By no coincidence, Smith also serves on the national executive of the Labor Party, which is trying to cripple the construction union. The CFMEU bureaucracy has been an integral part of Labor for decades, serving on the party’s executive committees, funnelling vast amounts of members’ dues into the party and campaigning aggressively for Labor in elections. Not only are they well aware of the Labor government’s pro-business program, they are responsible for it.

For years, the union leaders have told workers that the Liberal-National Coalition was their enemy and that the only way to defend their jobs, pay and conditions was by electing Labor governments. This line, which was always a fraud, is now completely exposed.

The same Labor government that is attacking the CFMEU is seeking to impose the full burden of the deepening crisis of global capitalism upon all workers, whether in the building industry, the public sector or more broadly. Public spending on hospitals, schools and other vital infrastructure is being slashed, while military expenditure is ramped up in preparation for a US-led war with China.

Labor is conscious of mounting hostility to this pro-business, pro-war agenda, reflected in plummeting opinion polls and in the ongoing weekly protests against the government’s complicity in Israel’s US-backed genocide against Palestinians.

The Labor government’s attack on workplace rights is in line with its broader efforts to criminalise and suppress protests, as was starkly displayed in last week’s violent police attacks on anti-war protesters in Melbourne.

This underscores the need for a unified political struggle by the working class, not just against Labor, but the capitalist system and its subordination of every aspect of workers’ lives to the profits of the financial and corporate elite.

Such a struggle is impossible within the framework of the union apparatus which is not just intimately tied to, but an integral part of, Labor and the political establishment.

To take forward such a fight, workers need new organisations of struggle. Rank-and-file committees, democratically led by workers and politically and organisationally independent of any union, must be built in workplace across the country.

Above all, what is posed is the need to fight for a workers’ government and for socialism. The big builders and property developers, as well as the banks and other major corporations, must be placed under public ownership and democratic workers’ control. Only in this way can society’s vast resources be utilised to provide the social needs of the entire population, including affordable housing and a permanent, full-time job with decent pay and conditions, not the further enrichment of the wealthy few.

... There was an obvious contradiction. While McManus uncritically repeated these claims from the corporate media and the big business Labor government, she was compelled to acknowledge that at this point, they were “allegations,” i.e., entirely unproven and untested. How then did they justify punitive state action against not only CFMEU leaders, but the 80,000 construction workers whose union is now under administration headed by a government-appointed lawyer with dictatorial powers over the organisation?

Australian union boss Sally McManus defends government attack on construction workers - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

FULL ARTICLE

In a video statement posted to social media on Monday, Sally McManus, secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), aggressively defended sweeping attacks on the basic rights of construction workers implemented last month by the federal Labor government.

The video ended a guilty silence that McManus and other ACTU bureaucrats maintained for the best part of a fortnight.

Having assisted the government to place the construction division of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) under administration on August 23, McManus and other ACTU officials said nothing for weeks. The silence was maintained even as tens of thousands of construction workers took to the streets to oppose the administration, a form of de facto state dictatorship over the union, and as the financial press crowed that the arrangement would help to slash wages and conditions in the sector.

In her video, McManus evaded all of these substantive issues. Acting as a mouthpiece of the government, property developers and construction companies, the union boss asserted that administration was necessary because of allegations that CFMEU construction officials had ties to criminals and had potentially engaged in illegal activity themselves.

McManus prefaced her remarks by informing the viewer, “I want to tell it to you straight, which means getting it warts and all.” She continued, “Some individuals in the construction division of the CFMEU have had serious allegations against them. We’re not talking about small things, we’re talking about criminal activity.”

The video spanned almost five minutes, but its contents were not substantially greater than those two sentences. McManus, a colourless bureaucrat, droned on about criminality and its purported incompatibility with the “trade union movement.”

Having begun with a suggestion that her remarks would shed new or greater light on the situation, McManus simply repeated the assertions against the CFMEU construction division contained in articles first published by Nine Media outlets two months ago and picked up by the government.

There was an obvious contradiction. While McManus uncritically repeated these claims from the corporate media and the big business Labor government, she was compelled to acknowledge that at this point, they were “allegations,” i.e., entirely unproven and untested. How then did they justify punitive state action against not only CFMEU leaders, but the 80,000 construction workers whose union is now under administration headed by a government-appointed lawyer with dictatorial powers over the organisation?

McManus explained that working with the government, the ACTU had proposed to the CFMEU that it voluntarily accept administration. The construction officials, she asserted, had rejected this course of action, forcing the government to pass extraordinary legislation to forcefully impose the administration. Even in this telling, McManus and the ACTU officials were acting as the agents of the government and the state.

It is public knowledge, however, that the CFMEU was cooperating with the imposition of administration. After the legislation was passed, leading CFMEU bureaucrats complained that it cut across their negotiations with the Fair Work Commission to install a third-party administrator under existing laws.

John Setka, the previous head of the CFMEU’s Victorian construction division has alleged that there was a deal in place, involving McManus, under which the union would not be placed under administration if he and several other controversial leaders of the CFMEU resigned. Setka, who had foreshadowed his resignation at the beginning of the year, left the union, prior to the administration. In her video, McManus did not respond to his claims.

McManus noted that the “decision making bodies” of the union had been “vacated” by the administrator, adding that “this affected 11 people with full time jobs.” This was a cynical attempt to cover over what has already occurred. In reality, at least 270 CFMEU officials and organisers have been sacked in the space of a few weeks.

Having repeated all the assertions of the government and the employees and promoted their attack on construction workers, McManus declared that the ACTU would “oppose any attempts by employers or the Coalition to take advantage of this situation.” Construction workers are unlikely to place great confidence in that assurance.

In reality, the entire “situation” has been engineered to the “advantage” of the Labor government and the employers. Already, major building companies are flagging an overhaul of previously negotiated enterprise agreements. The Australian Financial Review has presented administration as an unprecedented opportunity. Under conditions of complaints that construction workers were receiving pay rises of between 5 and 6 percent, all future enterprise agreements for the next three years will be negotiated under the direction of the administrator, whose prerogative will clearly be to cut wages.

McManus’ video received an angry response on X/Twitter and other platforms. Many comments described the ACTU chief as a “scab,” a “union buster” and a shill for the employers. Those sentiments are entirely in accord with what has transpired.

The critical point, however, is not just McManus as an individual, but the role of the entire union bureaucracy, which she personifies as the head of the ACTU. The umbrella union body and all of its affiliates have been at the forefront of every major attack on the working class over the past forty years.

In the 1980s, the ACTU partnered with big business and the Labor government of Prime Minister Bob Hawke in a series of tripartite Accords. Drafted by the union officialdom, they provided for the deregulation of the economy, the destruction of whole sections of industry and the decimation of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The ACTU facilitated deregistration of the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) in 1986 was a key component of this agenda, including the disciplining of militant workers and the abolition of organisations of struggle such as shop stewards committees. The BLF leaders accepted the deregistration and suppressed any struggle against it, paving the way for attacks on building workers and a vast increase in casualisation throughout the sector.

The only delegate to have opposed the Accords and their whole corporatist agenda at the ACTU’s 1987 Congress was Mary Kerr, a member of the Socialist Labour League, the predecessor organisation of the Socialist Equality Party. For her principled stand, Kerr was removed from the event, despite her credentials as a delegate of the NSW Public Service Association, whose leadership assisted the expulsion.

In the 1990s, under the Keating Labor government, the ACTU helped to introduce enterprise bargaining, dividing workers workplace by workplace. That framework has been used ever since by the union bureaucracy to impose sell-out agreements cutting wages and slashing conditions and preventing any industry-wide struggle by workers.

In 2009, the ACTU and the unions partnered with the Rudd Labor government in introducing the Fair Work Australia industrial relations framework. The draconian regime consolidated earlier restrictions on workers’ implemented by Hawke and Keating, outlawing virtually all industrial action, providing for the victimisation of militant workers and enabling a continuous onslaught on working conditions.

McManus’ entire adult life has been associated with this rotten record. Beginning her climb up the rungs of the union bureaucracy at the age of 19, she participated in ACTU’s Organising Works program, under then-ACTU secretary Bill Kelty, one of the architects of the Accords. McManus held various positions at the conservative Australian Services Union, before being given positions at the ACTU itself.

Her ascendency to the role of secretary in 2016 was accompanied by a public relations exercise, aimed at presenting the lifelong bureaucrat who has never been involved in a workers’ struggle as some sort of militant. McManus gave an interview in which she proclaimed her support for breaking “unjust laws.”

Those remarks were hailed by the fake-left groups that seek to chain workers to the union bureaucracy. Socialist Alternative wrote: “Every militant in the union movement will welcome as a breath of fresh air Sally McManus’s comments on defying unjust laws.” Socialist Alliance presented McManus’ ascendency as “a strategic shift in the trade union movement in this country.”

Ever since, McManus has enforced the Fair Work framework, while collaborating with the employers and governments.

Her role and that of the bureaucracy as a whole was epitomised in the first years of the pandemic. McManus and the ACTU partnered with the then Liberal-National Coalition government to impose wage freezes on millions of workers, and to suspend their basic conditions, including to such things as overtime pay. At the same time, McManus helped to craft the government’s JobKeeper program, which provided businesses, mostly the major corporations, with some $88.8 billion in government subsidies.

Conservative industrial relations minister Christian Porter described McManus as his new “BFF” (best friends forever). That was more than a passing comment. It encapsulated the fact that the union bureaucracy was the linchpin in defending not just the right-wing Coalition government, but capitalist rule amid the immense crisis in the initial phase of the pandemic. Amid fears in ruling circles that mass unemployment would trigger social upheaval, and industrial action by workers opposing their exposure to COVID, the ACTU did everything possible to enforce the dictates of the ruling class.

The result for workers of those policies and union-enforced attacks since has been a 4.8 percent reduction in real wages over the past four years, one of the biggest reversals in any advanced OECD country.

These policies are not the outcome simply of rotten individuals but of the social function of the trade union bureaucracy. It is a parasitic social layer whose executives, on hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, function as a police force of governments and the corporations.

For all of McManus’ feigned shock and concern, corruption is the inevitable byproduct of this role. Every major ACTU affiliate has had credible accusations of corruption levelled against it over recent decades, invariably revolving around the sordid relations between the union officialdom and the employers, directed against workers.

The role of the unions is rooted in objective socio-economic processes. In an earlier period, the bureaucracy sought to defend its privileges and capitalism itself by pressuring nationally-based corporations and governments to provide limited concessions to workers. The globalisation of production obliterated the basis of that program. The unions became transformed into fully corporatised entities, seeking to ensure that their “own” national industry remained competitive in the international market through a continuous reduction in labour costs.

The CFMEU and its ousted leadership are no exception. Their sole preoccupation, throughout the administration, has been to maintain the positions and the privileges of the CFMEU officialdom.

The only way to fight administration and the broader onslaught on wages and conditions of which it is is a part is through the establishment of genuine organisations of struggle, workers’ rank-and-file committees independent of the entire bureaucracy. Such committees can break the isolation operations of the unions and coordinate a joint political and industrial fight across construction and more broadly.

This is a political struggle against the Labor government, the union bureaucracy and the entire political and corporate establishment. It poses the need for a new socialist perspective, which rejects the subordination of workers’ rights and conditions and all of society to the profit dictates of the corporate elite.

Striking NSW health workers speak out against dire wages and conditions - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

... Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site spoke to striking health workers in Newcastle and Sydney.

At the Newcastle rally, a nurse told WSWS reporters: “I’m out here today because of short-staffing and not enough pay. I work in the Emergency Department. We are three to four people short per day, it puts us under a lot of pressure. There is a lot of overtime work done; I have two double shifts lined up after this rally here today. One tonight and another tomorrow.

“The 9.5 percent from [NSW Labor Premier Chris] Minns is a disgrace. I don’t think either Labor or Liberal cares. The military gets funding, the police get funding, but you look at healthcare, we get nothing. It’s a hard situation. They always promise and promise and promise and we get nothing.”

Another Newcastle nurse told the WSWS: “I feel that I am a socialist. I believe that public health should have been kept in the hands of the government. Utilities should be government owned to provide a service to people, not make money for corporate shareholders and let CEOs reap the benefits of $2-3 million bonuses and wages.

“It seems to me that a lot of money goes to useless infrastructure rather than grassroots spending; I really don’t think it is different with either the Labor or Liberal government in office. It’s disgraceful that the federal [Labor] government is cutting billions from health; it seems that the military is getting the billions of dollars.”

In Sydney, Kayla said: “We are understaffed. The patient load is very difficult to manage. I’m burnt out, I’m ready to leave the profession. It took me three years to gain my qualifications and now, after five years working as a nurse, I’m ready to get out.

“Minns came into government promising to improve things but that didn’t happen. They want top care for the bare minimum pay. It’s depressing.”

A community midwife who has worked in Britain as well as Australia said: “Compared to the UK, midwives there with the same qualifications get much higher pay and opportunities to get into management roles or into research roles. Here, it’s hard to get study days to be able to gain those higher qualifications.

“The working conditions here are much worse. We are understaffed and the decision to understaff us is coming from above, not the management. My friends in the UK used to think Australia was a good place to come to work as a midwife but they are not coming today, there is no incentive.

“The increased mortgage rates have definitely affected us. We’ve got a place to stay but I know midwives who don’t.”

Lucas, a mental health nurse, said: “The working conditions are getting worse. The ratios of patients to staff are not improving. There is no security in the mental health unit, while the ice epidemic is always increasing.

“We are expected to take the brunt without much support. There’s never enough resources, never enough staff. There are a lot more presentations of young people coming in, we’ve had kids of 10 and 11 years of age coming to triage.”

A nurse at the Parramatta rally said: “The hospitals are put under so much stress, yet we’re just told to suck it up and deal with it rather than giving us more support.

“When we’re taught, there’s time to talk to patients, get to know them, do the best for them. But in reality sometimes you rarely see your patients the way you want. There’s so many things you have to do that you don’t feel like you’re giving your best work.”

A pediatric nurse said: “This is a fight that’s been a long time coming. We’ve been treated too unfairly for far too long.

“On the floor, ratios are non-existent in NSW, so we have to tend to numerous patients. Midwives are working longer hours and more days, and we have managers working night shift to cover those shifts that couldn’t be covered.

“We’re losing nursing students and staff by the droves. No one wants to stay in nursing anymore. There’s too much pressure for less pay, too much responsibility for less pay. People are more and more acutely sick coming in, kids are getting sicker, adults are coming in with co-morbidities that we are having to spend more time treating.”

Indira (left), with colleagues at nurses and midwives’ rally in Sydney on September 10, 2024

Indira, a nurse from Blacktown hospital, said: “Living expenses are increasing and the pay rate is not matching up with expenses. I came to Australia in 2008 from Nepal as a student. I was able to save more money then compared to now, and I wasn’t a nurse!

“I sometimes feel like changing my job. It is not because it is not satisfying, but when I look at the pay and when I go shopping, with the cost of having children, the ongoing prices of housing, it is just not matching at all. I think about going to another state, but that would only resolve my problem, not everyone’s problem.”

Sharad said: “Before the election Minns was promising to change the conditions in hospitals, but he’s not keeping his promises. With the cost of living Labor should be improving things, not making them worse. A lot of permanent staff are leaving for better pay and conditions in other states. We get a lot of casual staff which is compromising patient care.

Maxine, from Nepean hospital, said: “Mortgages are going up, house prices, everything is going up. But nurses, who have a professional and sought-after job, can’t even afford basic living costs these days. A lot of us came today because we have families that we need to support at home and our pay doesn’t seem to be reflecting the cost of living.”

She was not surprised that the Minns Labor government has done nothing: “Politicians are always lying. They get into a position and they don’t follow their promises."

My union rep has just been let go and I feel my union (AWU) is not doing what most of us are paying fees for. As far as I know, is that a couple of ladies accused him of pushing people to vote a certain way for a roster change. I actually found one of them to be doing exactly that to me. They had disputes with him before and feel they took revenge. I was never asked about any of this while it was going on for months and now he's gone. I would have happily testified. I want to take this further, but don't know where to start, it even sounds it's to late. The man was there for 18 years, and in my eyes a respectable man with great work ethics.

Given the powers of the Administrator, do members of the CFMEU Construction Division have any rights within the union?

EXTRACT from: Federal Register of Legislation - Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Administration) Act 2024

323B  Scheme for the administration of the Construction and General Division and its branches

(1) The Minister may, in writing, determine a scheme for the administration of the Construction and General Division and its branches, if the Minister is satisfied that, having regard to the Parliament’s intention in enacting this Act (see section 5), it is in the public interest for the Division and its branches to be placed under administration.

 (2) An instrument made under subsection (1) is a legislative instrument, but section 42 (disallowance) of the Legislation Act 2003 does not apply to the instrument.

 (3) Without limiting subsection (1), the scheme must provide for the following:

 (a) the person who is to be appointed as the administrator of the scheme under section 323C;

 (b) suspension or removal of officers;

 (c) declarations that offices are vacant;

 (d) the timing of elections of officers;

 (e) the taking of disciplinary actions by the administrator, including expulsion of members and disqualification of officers for up to 5 years, and including in circumstances not provided for by the rules of the CFMEU or the Construction and General Division;

 (f) the termination of employment of employees of the Construction and General Division or its branches;

 (g) the making of an alteration of the rules of the Construction and General Division by the administrator in circumstances where, because of the administration, the alteration cannot be made in accordance with any provision made by this Act (other than this Part) or the rules;

 (h) giving reports to the Minister or General Manager;

 (i) delegation by the administrator of the administrator’s functions or powers;

 (j) the engagement or employment of persons by the administrator to assist in performing the administrator’s functions;

 (k) obligations for the administrator to cooperate with any inquiry into conduct of the CFMEU, or officers or employees or former officers or employees of the CFMEU or any of its branches, divisions or parts, being undertaken by any law enforcement agency or regulator (including the Fair Work Ombudsman or the FWC);

 (l) matters ancillary or incidental to matters mentioned in the previous paragraphs in this subsection.

Note: The scheme and things done under it have effect despite anything in this Act, Part 2‑4 of the Fair Work Act or the rules of the CFMEU or any branch, division or part of it (see section 323F).

 (4A) The scheme may provide for any other matters the Minister considers appropriate.

 (4) The Minister is not required to observe any requirements of the natural justice hearing rule in making a decision under this section.

Australia: Ousted CFMEU leaders seek to bury workers’ opposition to administration in drawn-out legal challenge - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)

... Prominent barrister Bret Walker SC will lead the High Court case, which was lodged jointly by ousted CFMEU officials, Jade Ingham (former national president) and Michael Ravbar (former Queensland secretary). The proceedings will be financed through “crowdfunding” and contributions from other unions, including the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).

The ousted CFMEU bureaucrats are arguing the law violates the implied freedom of political communication in the 1901 Constitution, breaches the separation of powers by punishing otherwise than by a court, exceeds federal power and amounts to taking union property without “just terms” compensation.

The case is a political diversion, designed to demobilise workers by placing their struggle in the hands of the courts. In addition, the case is unlikely to succeed. The High Court has previously ruled that violating the implied freedom is justified for a supposed reasonable purpose, like “national security” or “fighting crime.” It has also permitted various forms of punishment without trial, as in the terrorism legislation, and approved the wide use of federal power for workplace relations legislation. Moreover, the government could amend the legislation in the event of a High Court loss.

Imposed on the basis of entirely untested allegations of corruption in Nine Media publications, the administration is unquestionably draconian. Whether there are legal grounds for its overturn within the framework of Australia’s anti-democratic constitutional framework, which has no bill of rights and few references to civil liberties, remains to be seen.

But whatever the outcome, the CFMEU’s court case has nothing whatsoever to do with defending the interests of construction workers. The sole concern of the deposed officials is to restore their bureaucratic prerogatives and privileges, within the framework of Australia’s pro-business industrial relations legislation that they have defended for decades.

Since moves towards the imposition of administration began, the CFMEU officials have made appeals to the Labor government that is spearheading this attack, the Fair Work Commission responsible for imposing the dictates of big business and now the capitalist courts. Everything has been aimed at restoring their own jobs and preventing any mobilisation of construction workers.