Building union CFMMEU in SA hijacked by interstate bullyboys, insider claims
SOUTH Australia’s largest building union has been hijacked by militant interstate interests that will oversee industrial chaos on a massive scale, an insider fears.
SOUTH Australia’s largest building union has been hijacked by militant interstate interests that will oversee industrial chaos on a massive scale, an insider fears.
Duncan McKay, a prominent member of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union says the state is staring down another “wasted 15 years”, similar to the scenario that followed the disastrous Remm/Myer building project of the 1990s.
In an exclusive interview, the former CFMMEU delegate of the year says he is a committed unionist, “forever and a day”, but is speaking out because both the South Australian public and the rank and file members of his union “need to know the truth”.
Mr McKay holds fears that interstate interests have hijacked the union and didn’t want to tell members the truth.
He has concerns they will “f*** the industry in this state”, and destroy confidence and investment.
“Things have been pretty good for more than a decade in South Australia … but this is going to be volatile … a tinderbox,” he says. Mr McKay worries there will not be a crane in the Adelaide skyline for years, scaring away investment.
“After the Myer Centre debacle there was a wasted 15 years. There was a whole generation of construction workers missing after that because people got greedy and stupid,” he says. “We better not lose another generation because of a few massive egos from interstate muscling in. They have no right to come into this state.”
Mr McKay says he fears the union under the guidance of national CFMMEU boss Dave Noonan, Victorian secretary John Setka and assistant national secretary, and the acting CFMMEU SA state secretary, Andy Sutherland, is not the right fit for SA.
All three spoke at a general meeting at the union’s head office on South Tce in June where it was announced the union’s SA secretary of six years, Aaron Cartledge, had stood down “on good terms” and that Mr Sutherland, from Queensland, would act in the role.
Mr McKay claims that a plan to destabilise and change the SA leadership of the CFMMEU was hatched by national heavyweights years ago and that Mr Cartledge, a moderate, didn’t voluntarily stand down but was shoved.
“What happened to Aaron smells like a bag of prawns left out in the sun,” he says.
“It stinks. He was undermined and harassed from the top … it was enough to break any man.”
The union’s national executive placed the SA state branch into administration last year, effectively reducing Mr Cartledge’s powers. “He’d lost his authority and wasn’t allowed to talk with builders or sign any agreements,” Mr McKay says. “He could still go to work every day and get paid — but for what?
“They couldn’t sack him because that would have caused a big kickback from members. So they gave him unrealistic targets to achieve … impossible targets … he was given until October to achieve them but he was gone in June. A lesser man would have leapt earlier.”
Critics of Mr Cartledge say union membership shrunk to less than half under his watch and the finances were stretched after a series of Federal Court judgments against the union resulted in fines and legal fees of more than $2 million. Mr Cartledge’s supporters say that the practice of sending in interstate delegates and officials on to construction sites resulted in the significant fines.
Union membership is down by more than 1000 members of late, following the loss of Holden, closures at the Port Augusta power plant and Leigh Creek mine, cutbacks at the Whyalla Steelworks and shipbuilder ASC at Osborne and the completion of major construction projects including the RAH.
In response, Mr Noonan says Mr Cartledge resigned from his role.
“He was an elected member and no one could force him out,” the national secretary says.
“Aaron resigned it’s that simple.”
But Mr Noonan confirmed the national executive’s opinion that the SA branch had underperformed.
“The SA branch had failed to achieve expected performance levels,” he says.
“That’s why we came in to stabilise things.”
The first public signal Mr Cartledge was under pressure for his job came in 2016 when he became the first SA state secretary in the union’s history to be challenged.
Jack Merkx – the union’s delegate on the new Royal Adelaide Hospital site – was the contender.
Mr McKay said the pair had bad blood with Mr Merkx, who accused his rival of putting the union on “a path to disaster”, believing when Mr Cartledge was first appointed state secretary in 2012, he had an agreement to be his deputy, and there is ongoing resentment that the job was given to another delegate, Jim O’Connor. Mr Cartledge decisively claimed the November 2016 ballot of the membership, with 70 per cent of the vote to Mr Merkx’s 30 per cent.
But within months his authority was undermined when the national executive took over the day to day running of the union in SA.
The catalyst was an email tirade from Mr Setka, who early last year savaged his South Australian colleagues, describing them as “weak c***s” and “bludging f***ers”.
“On our first executive meeting for 2017 I will be recommending that we give these bludging f***ers no money until we get some answers,” the email read.
“I hope that arron (sic) and his crew are having a good holiday with their families.”
Mr McKay fears Mr Setka, among other national leaders, backs Mr Merkx and that the writing is “already on the wall”, that in time, he will be appointed SA state secretary.
“Anyone who doesn’t think Jack will be installed has got rocks in his head,” he says.
“Don’t get me wrong, Jack’s charismatic and likeable and one of those who can talk underwater but we don’t need a ‘yes’ man.”
Mr McKay says the interstate interests want to be seen as “hard men” and “saviours” to the rank and file, but he instead fears they will destroy the union.
“This same bunch took over in Tasmania,” he says.
Mr McKay felt that move was a disaster and that they should be fixing the problems there instead of muscling in to South Australia.
“The push by these people in SA is unwarranted and unwanted. They have no right. Our membership needs to know what’s really going on,” he says. Mr McKay believes the CFMMEU leadership is obsessed with targeting those companies and major builders who are already doing the “right thing”.
“They love the big stage and that’s the RAH and the like and it’s not the domestic housing market but that’s where we should be focused,” he says.
“We don’t have the continuity of construction in SA … it’s one job to the next if you’re lucky. It’s a delicate balance … that’s why SA membership fluctuates. We can’t jack up wages too much and price ourselves out of work … because the cowboys will come in … they’re already here and undercutting the more established companies.
“They pay low, use casuals and interstate and foreign workers. And those blokes don’t join a union. They take our deals (industrial agreements) but they won’t pay union fees.
“Without a union … we’ll all get steamrolled – especially in today’s political climate.”
Mr McKay says he fears for a repeat of the days of the Remm/Myer building when construction delays were almost weekly and workers’ pay packets gained legendary levels. Completed in 1992 after four years, the centre cost more than $1 billion to build and the State Bank, that was the primary backer, lost more than $750m on the deal.
Just three years later, the Myer Centre was sold by the Brown Liberal government to reclusive Singapore investor Denis Jen for $151 million.
Meanwhile, Mr McKay says long-term SA union delegates are being pushed out on the basis that they haven’t recruited enough members. He says Mr O’Connor, who stood down from his deputy secretary role last month, was another victim.
He worries the people doing the pushing have lost their way and no longer work for the rank and file members.
“We are their boss – and they’re not listening to us," he says. “It’s time for the SA public and rank and file members to know the truth.”
Mr Noonan says that no SA member of the union has ever raised any issues with him.
“No member has made any complaints in South Australia,” he says.
“We had a general meeting attended by more than 80 members who unanimously endorsed the future direction of the union in SA. I suspect anyone making complaints is not even a union member.”
Mr Noonan would not discuss any timetable for an election of a new state secretary in SA. “The governance of our union is our business and not for public discussion,” he says.
The Master Builders Association SA branch has raised concerns about the change in leadership of the union’s SA branch and the potential impact on the state’s economy.
Chief executive Ian Markos says the union’s internal squabbles are bad for the state.
“It’s obviously got to a point where they’re such a rabble that they’re turning on their own,” he says.
“In South Australia now we are serious about making sure the state is open for business and the right settings are put in place. The last thing we need is childish behaviour.”
State Treasurer Rob Lucas, a member of the Brown government that sold the Myer centre, is equally damning.
“The last thing in the world South Australia needs is the cancer in the construction sector spreading to SA,” he says.
“It would be a disaster for the state.”
The CFMMEU SA branch, via Mr Sutherland, was repeatedly contacted for comment but did not respond.