Ideas@TheCentre
Unions are not always for workers
There is a simple lesson to be drawn from this week’s dispute in Melbourne between the construction company Grocon and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU): the interests of unions are not necessarily the same as the interests of workers, and a union campaign does not always equate to a workers’ campaign.
The CFMEU’s picketing campaign furthers the union’s interests at the expense of Grocon’s employees, not in support of them.
In breach of Supreme Court orders to clear Grocon construction sites, 400 or so unionists turned up on Londsdale Street in Melbourne’s CBD on Wednesday to blockade the $1.2 billion Myer Emporium construction site. Today is the tenth day of an illegal picket line preventing Grocon employees from working and the union has promised the campaign will continue.
The dispute, which on Tuesday escalated to violent clashes between unionists and mounted police, centres on the CFMEU’s demand that the union, rather than management or the workers, choose the occupational health and safety (OH&S) inspectors for the sites and for Grocon to pay for the inspectors.
Why does the union want to have its own hand-picked OH&S inspectors at each of the work sites? OH&S laws can be used by unions as unofficial or de facto industrial action – a backdoor to getting concessions that would not be possible through normal legal channels. A union can organise a walk-off with little notice if it alleges that the employer has breached serious safety standards. The threat of a walk-off and the cost inflicted on the company are significant incentives for employers to cave in to union demands.
Obviously this campaign has little to do with workplace safety or workers’ rights. In fact, as the chief executive of Grocon, Daniel Grollo, mentioned, his company won Safe Work Australia’s Best Workplace Health and Safety Management System award (private sector) earlier this year, and in 2011, it won the OHS Management System of the Year from Worksafe Victoria.
The CFMEU’s campaign is about control through intimidation, and is designed to increase the CFMEU’s membership by obtaining additional control and visibility at work sites. Unions often condemn the self-interest of employers, but it should surprise no one that unions are just as self-interested as the companies they battle.
Alexander Philipatos is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies.
