CFMEU could withdraw support from Labor ahead of election

The CFMEU has warned it could withdraw its support from Labor ahead of next year’s state election, and even threatened to follow Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk around the state to protest.

THE CFMEU could withdraw its support from Labor ahead of next year’s state election and follow the Premier around the state if key demands about Cross River Rail are not met.

It comes after hundreds of construction workers marched to Parliament House today to slam the Government’s handling of the $5.4 billion rail project.

Speaking to reporters after the protest, CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar left the door open for the union to withdraw its support from Labor in the lead up to October 2020 election if its issues with the project were not addressed.

CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar says the union withdrawing support from the Labor Party is not unprecedented. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

“We’ve done that before,” he said.

“We did that with Anna Bligh – a very similar thing with the Airport tunnels.

“It’s a bit like deja vu. History has a habit of repeating itself and we didn’t support the Labor Government during that campaign in 2012.”

Mr Ravbar called on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to step in to resolve the issues, insisting the union would play “the long game” all the way through to the election.

“One thing about unions is we are independent, especially the CFMEU” he said.

“We’ll leave no stone unturned and we will be very creative.

“I think it’s at the stage where the Premier can’t keep hiding anymore. She needs to come out and actually fix this issue.

“We’ll be having further protests.

“Where ever the Premier goes, we might pop in and say hello.”

CFMEU members protested at Parliament House this morning over concerns about the Cross River Rail project. File picture: Annette Dew

Union officials met with Cross River Rail Minister Kate Jones today to discuss their concerns.

In a statement, Ms Jones said she wanted the job done “on time and on budget”.

“I’ve met with the contractor and delivery authority and made it very clear that I expect them to fix industrial relations on this project,” she said.

The unions claims there is nothing in the agreement to promote traineeships and there are no measures to “prevent the use of unsafe building products.”

It follows anger over enterprise agreements struck by the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority.

The Courier-Mail understands the CFMEU wanted enterprise agreement conditions for the CRR that mirrored Queens Wharf.

They include annual pay rises of 5 per cent instead of 3.5 per cent, a site allowance of $11 — $3 more than what CRR offered — and more lucrative overtime and shift loading rates.

It would have meant civil workers would have been paid annualised earnings of about $261,000 instead of $215,000 and a tunnel worker would have received about $285,000 instead of $253,000.