How union failures fuelled Melbourne protests

Protesters march up the West Gate freeway. Picture: Aaron Francis

The film “All the President’s Men” showed us to “follow the money” whenever a major unusual event arises.

This week many thousands of construction workers flooded onto Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge in a massive protest. Leaving aside differing vaccination views this drama was about mismanagement, frustration and the power of money.

Balancing on the bridge was the largest pool of political money in Australia - the massive funds generated by the building unions that support the ALP in Victoria and the nation. The unions collect much of that money from commercial building companies because the unions control and can deliver their workforce. But now the workers, not the unions, were not only setting the agenda but protesting against the management of the largest of the unions, the CFMEU. There were no precedents for this.

While the protest happened suddenly, the forces that created it involved mismanagement and frustration that go back to the original breakout of the Covid virus in Victoria and Australia.

The remarkable report of Jennifer Coate into the Victorian hotel quarantine disaster details the squabbles between public servants, the incorrect delegations of responsibility and the sad role of cabinet ministers in this affair.

She graphically described what happened as a “lack of proper leadership and oversight”, a “catastrophe waiting to happen” and a “disaster that tragically came to be”.

Victoria through hard lockdowns controlled the early versions of the virus. In specific areas big government management improvements were made but the overall health management structure flaws at the top (not nurses, doctors and medical staff) were never fixed. Victoria still relied on hard lockdowns to keep the virus at low infection rates to enable its health system to cope. But Delta escaped and suddenly the public servants realised they were facing the danger of huge infection rates. The health system would not cope.

Protesters move towards Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge. Picture: Aaron Francis

In all the previous lockdowns the power of the construction unions was recognised and the industry was given much less onerous restrictions than other areas of the community. But this time standards in the construction industry had became lax as part of an intense community frustration in Melbourne, given the city has been locked down longer than any other major global city. Again, using the words of Jennifer Coate, it was “catastrophe waiting to happen”.

The power and wealth of the largest building union, the CFMEU, is on public display via their Elizabeth Street building in Melbourne but there are also other key unions in the building network.

While members pay their subscriptions, the big money comes from corporations who need the unions to deliver industrial peace. The unions in turn deliver huge pay rates for the workers which are paid for by building owners. The ALP is a beneficiary and access to the money is a big factor in the ALP dominating Victorian state elections and Victorian federal seats.

The unions are controlled by the top officials and members are happy to go along with the officials and enjoy the high pay rates they deliver on commercial sites.

But this time the CFMEU and some of the other building unions (but not all) did not understand the lockdown resentment building up in their ranks. Workers this time were not only having their freedom on the construction sites curbed, but like all Victorians when they went home they had to deal with children who could not go to school and frustrated spouses and partners. And they could not meet at the pub.

When the Victorian health officials put restrictions on construction workplaces to curb virus breakouts on sites, they believed that the unions could and would deliver the workers just as they always had done. When there were minor protests the health officials shut the whole industry down. The members revolted. The union officials had lost control.

It’s true worker ranks at the first protest were boosted by professional agitators but on day one the intensity of the construction worker revolt was captured by a lone camera person walking with the building union members on the streets of Melbourne and across the West Gate Bridge. He broadcast his conversations with the protesters live on social media. The interviews reached an incredible 1.8 million viewers. Victorians saw first hand that on day one the vast bulk of the protesters were not extremists but construction people. Day two at the Shrine was different.

Demonstrators at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. Picture: AFP

We are in uncharted territory. Construction workers will not be happy seeing their money being used to help the ALP under Daniel Andrews stay in power. They might have a similar view to Anthony Albanese.

In looking for a possible outcome I go back to my corporate experience.

There is an old rule in corporate disasters - the directors and management of the company who caused the problem can never fix it. That also applies to the current Victorian government.

The government has removed a construction industry adviser. That’s unlikely to be enough.

Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd and Solicitor-General Rowena Orr must and will act in accordance with the law as they see it. But if they decided that circumstances in the hotel quarantine affair and perhaps the I Cook Foods scandal warranted prosecution, then it would have the same impact as lancing the management boil, corporate style.

Importantly it would be up to the courts to decide guilt or innocence. Leaving aside legal matters it will not be long before construction workers realise that the precedents created by the lack if action in this matter threatens the protection they believe they are entitled to under the occupational health and safety laws.

If and then that happens we will have a riot that will make the West Gate Bridge protest look like a picnic.