Construction shutdown about control and John Setka and his leaders looks like they’ve lost it

The construction shutdown is a high-stakes bid to show militant unionists who’s boss — only time will tell if it pays off.

Here’s something I bet you’d never thought you would see: a Socialist Left Labor premier ordering a lockout of building workers across Melbourne.

But in the crazy world we’re now living in – a world in which the free market IPA is posting videos dissecting Victoria Police brutality – it seems anything is possible.

Forget the nonsense talk about the dangers of spread on building sites, which has been known about for months. This is about control.

After 18 months of lockdowns, Melburnians are reaching the end of their tether.

On the one hand they’ll tell a pollster, yeah, of course I support lockdowns to keep us safe.

On the other they’ll just quietly start breaking the rules because well, they’re just over it.

Most people aren’t going to start acting out their anger in the street because they’re not built that way.

The CFMEU? Its members are different.

Its militancy isn’t peripheral, it’s the reason it’s the most powerful and feared union in the country.

And as anyone could see watching the footage of Monday’s event outside its headquarters, it’s clear as mud, its leadership has lost control over a large chunk of the rank-and-file.

John Setka is used to being the one revving up the boys.

On Monday he got a glimpse of what it must have been like for the people on the other side of his pickets all these years.

He and his officials looked old and out of touch.

Victorian CFMEU state secretary John Setka tries to speak to the crowd on Monday. Picture: David Crosling

Instead of calming the crowd, Setka’s appearance enrages them. Picture: David Crosling

Setka is forced to retreat inside after tensions escalate. Picture: David Crosling

You can tell how out of touch Labor politicians are by the way they’ve retreated into a fantasy that these are not “real” unionists.

On Tuesday, Bill Shorten tried to claim the crowd had been infiltrated by fake tradies “who had been down to the Reject Shop and got themselves a $2 hi-vis hoodie so they could pretend they were construction workers”.

That’s about as believable as the right-wingers in America who tried to convince the world this year’s Capitol riot in Washington had been infiltrated by Antifa.

The majority of the crowd were real members of the CFMEU – many of whom had joined the mob from the site across the street.

Just as many of the protesters in Richmond dressed in CFMEU gear and waving Eureka flags were what they seemed to be: members of the CFMEU.

Shorten is undoubtedly right, there’s a network of right-wingers who want to cause trouble.

Where I suspect he’s wrong is to pretend that somehow they’re all outside the construction industry.

What is clear is there is a hardcore element of building workers who are not going to be told they have to get vaccinated, not by Daniel Andrews nor anyone else.

Their views might be plum loco but you can’t deny they’re sincerely held.

The government and CFMEU leadership know that with emotions running high, it was inevitable Monday’s scenes would be repeated as long as sites remained open in the city, bringing thousands of workers together within blocks of each other.

They’re betting that sending workers home to the suburbs will keep them there.

But this shutdown is also designed to show them who’s the boss.

We’re not quite in the 19th century, when strikers were starved back to work, but in many ways the tactic isn’t that different.

Like everyone else in Australia construction workers are mortgaged to the hilt.

Many of their wives and partners will be without work.

One can only assume the Labor government is hoping a couple of weeks at home will make for a more compliant workforce ready to roll up their sleeves along with the rest of us.

We’ll see about that.

Originally published as Construction shutdown about control and John Setka and his leaders looks like they’ve lost it