Building union officials are the toughest people I know, but unity is a two-way street

The recent news and disclosures about the CFMEU have raised some observations about building unions and their officials, in particular about the CFMEU’s predecessor, the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF).

First, we must consider the historical contribution of building union officials. Tom McDonald, the father of the CFMEU, is by any standards one of the great union officials in our history. He together with Pat Clancy, Ernie Botswain, Stan Sharkey, Paddy Ellis, and a host of others, transformed the lives of building workers. They did so on all fronts: from wage rates to redundancy entitlements, workers’ compensation, training and safety.

Bill Kelty served as ACTU secretary for almost 20 years.Credit: Ben Rushton

All workers should be grateful for their contribution in the fight against apartheid, French nuclear testing in the Pacific, and the two biggest general strikes in our history (in 1976 and 1982), both over Medicare. They helped forge the campaign for universal entitlements to superannuation, and the use of building industry minimum rates, to establish the highest minimum rates for all workers in the world. These achievements should not be forgotten.

The building industry is a tough industry, and produces tough union officials. But largely, the industry is one of subcontractors and employers who can be evasive and transitory.The union is often the ballast in the industry as the employers come and go.

There are good employers and there are bad employers. It should not be regarded as unthinkable that good employers can work with good unions. It is not surprising that good unions fight bad employers. What is untenable, is when bad employers seduce, or are seduced by corrupt union officials for personal gain. This is the line of demarcation that cannot be crossed. The more militant the union, the greater the onus is on the union to abide by this fundamental ethos of honesty.

The recent revelations about the CFMEU have revived discussion about the demise of the BLF in the early 1980s, and its leader Norm Gallagher. It’s true there was a finding of corruption about Gallagher but it was not an ACTU finding. We came to a different view about the incident that led to his jailing. Three major building companies, one led by Lloyd Williams and another by Max Bec told us the building materials given to him were not kickbacks but the remnants of building projects. When we visited his beach house “mansion” it was self-evidently built from second-hand materials. Norm lived at the back of the BLF union office for a long time and was an avid patron of the Queen Victoria Markets. There was nothing in his lifestyle to suggest he was on the take.

Much to the annoyance of John Cain, the newly elected Labor premier of Victoria, we were prepared to underwrite continued registration of the BLF when federal Labor won power in 1983. It was both a collective and a personal underwriting.

In part, it came about because we worked near and with many BLF officials, among them Jim Bacon, who became premier of Tasmania, and John Cummins, who became a much-respected leader of the CFMEU. These officials were strong and tough. In today’s world they could be regarded as too tough. I think they would resent being associated with criminals because for the most part, they made criminals look meek and mild.

Gallagher, who was the toughest of them all, may have been no saint, but he did achieve the award restructuring of builders labourers jobs almost 20 years before other semi-skilled workers achieved the same results. We could not come to the view that he was a criminal or had handed the union over to criminals, junkies, or bikies. He was too proud to do that!

The BLF lost our support because they took the collective goodwill of the union movement to prevent deregistration and then refused to meet their collective commitments. They broke agreements with other unions, employers, and the ACTU.

I was forever saddened about it because underneath it all I really liked Gallagher and believed he did a lot of good. Whatever happens to some of the building union officials in the CFMEU, and they too deserve the normal rights of due process, it should not be assumed they are in the same frame as Gallagher. Norm sadly lost his industrial acumen when he was in jail in Pentridge with people like Garry David, who had perpetrated terrible crimes. He never recovered.

Any union official should know that the union is more important than they are. It is, after all, a custodian position of care and responsibility. There is no place for criminals or bikies in unions and for that reason, it is imperative there be an independent and fair assessment of the accusations. An administrator is essential, not to threaten unionism, but to protect it.

Every union should know that unity is a two-way street. One you take and the other you give. It is regretful that the ACTU has had to take steps to suspend the CFMEU, but it had no choice if it wanted to protect the union and advance the interests of all working people.

The good people in the CFMEU, bargaining every day to improve the wages and conditions of their members, have nothing to fear. The ACTU should ensure it stays that way.

Bill Kelty was secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1983 to 2000.

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