Contributed by Joe Montero

Huge marches of construction workers took place yesterday, mainly in Melbourne and Sydney. More than 120,000 took part. This was another show of force that means business. The marches, copied across regional centres, proves beyond doubt that those who work on work on construction sites stand solidly behind their unions. They want action to defend the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) from the Albanese government’s attack.

Photo by David Crosling/ABC News: Marchin Melbourne

For their part, the electrical Trades Union (ETU), Plumbers (CEPU), and the Australia Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) have pledged to stand by the CFMEU, defend each other, and ensure that wages and conditions are not attacked by builders and developers using the Albanese government’s legislation that allowed it to put the CFMEU into administration. Union leaders promised to fight to get this law removed, and the crowds responded wildly. The groundswell against this attack is Australia wide.

The groundswell from the workforce is the Albanese government’s Achilles Heel. Its determination to wreck Australia’s leading union will likely become a wreck. Tye Reputation of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has been trashed, due to its failure to act and seen as a creature of the government. Secretary Sally McManus, long tied to the Albanese faction of the Labor Party has become an object of ridicule, for her public stance against the union and support for taking over its administration.

Removed National Secretary of the CFMEU Zach smith speaking at Sydney march

CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith told those assembled in Melbourne, “An attack on one union is an attack on all.”

“Our victory is assured if we stand together and fight together and today, we will be sending a very clear message across those corporate board rooms, across the halls of parliament that we’re drawing a line in the sand.”

Photo by Rohan Kelly/ News Corp Australia: March in Sydney

In Sydney, the ousted secretary of the NSW branch of the union, Darren Greenfield, said that “this campaign … by this rotten Labor Party and the ACTU on our union is coming for every union in this country.”

Labor finds that a large part of the Australian workforce is turning against it. Suggestions of an election campaign next year against Labor were again wildly supported by the marchers. The prospect was first raised and supported in the first marches a few weeks ago. A strategy on how to apply this is being discussed within union circles. The aim is to prevent a coalition victory but ensure a Labor minority government that will be forced to make important concessions.

Some are talking about creating a new party, but the conditions are not ripe for such a proposal to materialise. A loose alliance of various forces is more likely. The main focus is not on this, however. Construction unions are still calling on Labor to reconsider. They are developing a strategy that will escalate action step by step.

Troy Grey, the Victorian ETU Secretary who chaired the flatform at the Melbourne march informed that in the march to come in a few weeks’ time, there will be a call for a 72-hour strike. After this, the action will be stronger at each stage, should the Albanese government continue on its present course.

Photo from ABC News: Victoria’s secretary of the ETU Troy Gray speaking at the Melbourne march

“We put the industry on notice,” he said, should the industry move against the achievements won over 100 years.

The anger does not stop with construction unions. Other unios, are having their own internal debates. There is a great deal of support for the CFMEU, and this spreads through the wider workforce. Recognition is given to the fact that the CFMEU as the pacesetter in wages and conditions, that the attack on this union is a set up using fake accusations, and that this attack sets up the conditions to attack all unions and push down wages and conditions across the workforce. There is a widespread recognition that Labor under Albanese operates on behalf of the major corporations and is not for the worker.

This assessment encompasses millions, and it has the potential to put the Labor government as it is to rest. This is why its attack on the CFMEU doesn’t much chance of succeeding. The construction union and their members are determined to stick it out, through thick and thin, for as long as it takes until victory has been won. What does Albanese have to answer this?