A car owned by a construction union official has been firebombed in an incident that exposes the violence and intimidation still permeating the nation’s building industry.
The ute, owned by a senior organiser in the NSW branch of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union, was torched about 1am on Monday.
The torched ute belonged to a CFMEU organiser.
The ute was set on fire outside the organiser’s Sydney home, forcing CFMEU administrator Mark Irving, SC, to call in state and federal police and take steps to protect the official.
“We are taking the matter very seriously,” Irving said in a statement. “The administration will do everything in its power to ensure all lines of inquiry are explored by responsible authorities.
“All workers in the construction industry, including CFMEU organisers, should be safe at work, and no one should be exposed to criminal violence. Criminal figures in the construction industry must be held to account.”
Three construction industry sources, who declined to speak on the public record, citing fear of reprisals, confirmed details of the firebombing.
The same organiser’s house was previously vandalised with threatening graffiti.
The torching of the official’s car comes as Irving attempts to assert control over a union, and within an industry, dogged by underworld figures and operating within a culture of fear and violence.
One line of investigation being considered by authorities is that the official’s car was targeted in connection to an industrial dispute on a major NSW state government site last week.
The organiser was involved in a dispute with a form work company on the site over safety issues.
Another line of inquiry involves claims of a falling out between some in the union and other industry players facing corruption allegations.
The incident comes after police warned Irving they had credible intelligence that he faced an imminent death threat.
Irving was appointed as administrator after the union’s previous leadership was removed in the wake of this masthead’s Building Bad investigation with 60 Minutes.
That months-long investigation exposed the union’s infiltration by bikies and organised criminals, intimidation and allegations of corruption.
Leading anti-corruption expert Geoffrey Watson, SC, found in a report released last year that the Victorian branch of the union was caught in a “cycle of lawlessness”.
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