Contributed by Joe Montero

Before believing the new flood of allegations being fired at the construction division of the CFMEU, and especially its Victorian branch, one should consider the bigger picture. There is a concerted campaign led by media outlets owned by Nine/Fairfax and Murdoch to destroy the union. The Labor government under Anthony Albanese and the Liberal Party led Coalition are part of the conspiracy. The Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen has joined in.

What happened to the principle of innocent until proven guilty. This has been replaced by trial by media and conviction based on allegations. not proof. At least Victorian Secretary John Setka and his federal counterpart Chris Caine retired so as not to be a distraction from what is really an attack on the union.

Some have been fooled by the hype for now. Big media has a powerful influence and the capacity to substitute a false narrative to hide the reality. Breaking out of this is important.

What is going on is a new move to wipe out this part of the union, and it has nothing to do with criminal gangs and union corruption on building sites. It is a repeat of earlier attacks. The main one led to the establishment of Australian Building and Construction Commission, aimed at getting the union out of worksites and punishing its rank-and-file members for standing up for basic rights on the job. And it was to discourage them from joining the union.

It happened that the union had committed the crimes of being militant and stood out in being successful in winning the loyalty and active participation of its members. This combination led to wages and conditions that surpassed other industries. Back in the time of the Commission Labor leaders went along with the witch-hunt and the peak federation of the unions, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) sat on its hands. The unholy alliance of media moguls, politicians, and shall we say, some complicit union leaders, is at it again.

It’s no secret that big developers, other major builders and the real estate industry are major contributors to the political parties, and as the building speculation bonanza they have been enjoying might soon be coming to an end. They want to put down wages and conditions on building sites to pay the cost of more difficult times ahead.

This attack is also aimed at taming the unions across the board. There is bad news ahead. The economy continues to falter, and the push is on to pull down real wages and condition to boost the profits share going to the major employers. Tied to this, is a perceived need to stifle growing unrest that might cause a rift between workers is and a Labor Party still committed to neoliberalism.

Obviously, there are those working in the industry who have been involved in crime and done time in prison. This is because there is a long-standing policy, of providing opportunities for those who have served their rime. There is nothing wrong with this. There is also a history of infiltration by criminal gangs, more on the employer, from at least the days of Squizzy Taylor in the 1920’s, than on the side than the union’s. The union has fought hard to get rid of this element. It is the government and its key contractors who have brought them into government funded projects.

Squizzy Taylor and other gangsters like him worked with employers worked against the unions n the 1920’s and it continues today

Unprincipled journalists behind the allegations against the union failed to investigate and acknowledge the connection between employers, government, and organised crime. They blamed the union for being behind it instead. When negotiating enterprise agreements, the union had no choice but to deal with whoever the employer side put up. It all smells like one big set up.

Back in 2020, two officials from the Victorian branch were set upon by goons and bashed for raising safety concerns on a site in Melbourne. It’s one of other similar incidents in the industry. There was no media campaign against the goons. None were investigated and charged. Perhaps this showed the writing was on the wall.

Now allegations emerging from another union, with ambitions to move into the industry and connections with the employers and the Albanese faction, the Australian Workers Union (AWU), are being used as a smokescreen. The claim is that a CFMEU official had threatened the owner of an indigenous labour hire company for not signing up with the AWU, and the result was the dead of a young man called Ben Nash. It was the CFMEU’s fault claims the AWU. Building sits are dangerous places and the CFMEU is has reduced the number of deaths and injuries.

Photo by Joel Carrett/AAP: Union has reduced the number of deaths and injuries in a dangerous industry

This is what sparked the present witch hunt, and it shows it is about imposing a tame union on workers in the industry and destroying that which really stands up for them.

This is not about individual union officials and the unproven allegations made against them. Much of this is about factional differences.

Dissenters controlling small manufacturing division are allied with the mining and energy faction who failed to gain control of the union and sought to defect to the AWU. Albanese has sided with them all along and sought to destroy the CFMEU before this latest attempt. He wasted little time in introducing special legislation to allow breakaways.

For anyone who values the importance of unions as defenders of wages and conditions, and as a leading force for broader community rights, defence of the CFMEU is important. We should not be fooled by the spin and stand by a union that has a proud history of providing the lead. Support is mobilising. More of it is needed.