’Breath away from disaster’: CFMEU fires up over water security job
The CFMEU has warned of an industrial relations “disaster” at council’s largest-ever construction project over claims of jobs going south, but lead contractor John Holland has stated the firm had a longstanding commitment Cairns suppliers.
Cairns
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cairns. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The CFMEU has warned of an industrial relations “disaster” at council’s largest-ever construction project over claims of jobs going south, but lead contractor John Holland has stated the firm had a longstanding commitment Cairns suppliers.
About 200 fired up members of the construction union flanked by members of the Electrical Trades Union and the Maritime Union of Australia paraded down Lake St on Monday led by CFMEU Far North Queensland organiser Rolly Cummins.
Holding placards with messages such as “Cairns locals matter” while chanting “don’t be grubby, use our subbies,” the group convened at the offices of John Holland on Lake St and for a period blocked the CBD street.
At the heart of the union’s grievance is a claim Cairns subcontractors supplying concreting, form working, steel fixing, concrete pumping and cranes had been locked out of work on the $472m Cairns Regional Council project in favour of southern subbies.
“What’s happening is John Holland is telling the local subcontractors that they haven’t even been short-listed to even go and work on that job,” he told the crowd.
“No matter how you look at this project, we are a breath away of this project being a disaster.
“And I got a message for John Holland, if you go down this line, it will be an industrial disaster for that project, because Cairns local workers are not going to work for $30 an hour.”
For the past three months earthworks on the stage one of the project have been progressing in the hills off Maitland Rd in the Mount Peter area.
Despite the scale of the works, controversial Best Practice Industry Conditions don’t apply on the reservoir and water treatment project due to the client being Cairns Regional Council and not the state government, meaning there is no union enterprise bargaining agreement in place. And the CFMEU’s ability to influence how John Holland awards tenders is limited.
Despite union claims, a Cairns construction source, who asked not to be named, said their company had been invited to tender on the project.
“We have a signed contract to supply (services) and we are 100 per cent engaged on that project,” the source said.
Mr Cummins told the crowd the minimum pay rate under the award attached to the water security project was $37.66, which is significantly less than the wage under the union EBA.
“That’s more than $20 an hour pay cut,” he said.
“They want the cheapest, the f---ing dirtiest, the most undercutting contractors they can find.
“We cannot allow a multinational big end town to come into (Cairns) and just f---ing take us back 10 years, because that’s what they’re trying to do.”
It’s understood John Holland is still going through the procurement process and hasn’t awarded any major subcontracts on the council water project.
John Holland general manager of operations in Queensland Natasha Roy said the company had a longstanding commitment to employing local people and using local suppliers.
“We have a regional office in central Cairns and we’re very proud to be delivering critical infrastructure for the community and helping to create a skilled local workforce for future projects,” she said.
“On the recently completed Edmonton to Gordonvale project 80 per cent of the total contract value was spent within the local region and $16.1m with First Nations-owned businesses.
The demonstration is the second in the Cairns CBD in as many months and followed a march down Lake St in defiance of government’s national CFMEU crackdown in August.
More Coverage
Originally published as ’Breath away from disaster’: CFMEU fires up over water security job
‘Vulnerable’ woman loses $200k to social media romance rip-off
A ‘vulnerable’ Cairns woman has been tricked into handing over $200,000 to an online fraudster who built trust through a fake social media account before stripping the victim of hard-earned cash.
‘I’ve moved 10 times in a year because I’ve got too many kids’
A mother-of-nine has highlighted a major crisis across Queensland, revealing she has had to move house about 10 times in a year.