CFMEU vows to break law if necessary

New CFMEU construction secretary Zach Smith says ‘sometimes bad laws need to be broken’.

CFMEU national construction division secretary Zach Smith.

The national construction union has told the country’s major builders that engineered stone products will not be unloaded from trucks from July next year, even if a threatened union ban is unlawful.

Declaring such action has not been contemplated since the green bans in the 1970s, the incoming CFMEU national construction division secretary Zach Smith told The Australian that “sometimes bad laws need to be broken”.

“If that was true when it came to defending heritage buildings, it’s certainly true when it comes to saving workers’ lives,” he said.

Federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has put a potential ban on imported manufactured stone products containing silica on the agenda when he meets with state and territory workplace relations ministers next week.

The ministers will also discuss stronger regulations across all industries where workers are exposed to silica, with Mr Burke saying urgent action is needed to address the spread of silicosis among workers.

In the letter to the big construction companies, including Lendlease, Multiplex and John Holland, Mr Smith told them the union’s preferred option was to have governments legislate to ban the product but he said if no legislative action eventuated by July next year, “we will advise our members to introduce a ban themselves”.

“Workers have a right to refuse work that they reasonably consider poses a threat to their safety and wellbeing,” he wrote.

“With all that we now know about engineered stone, we believe these products constitute a clear, potentially deadly threat.

“Consistent with this, we will advise our members to refuse to unload engineered stone products from trucks on site. If any engineered stone products find their way on site, we will advise our members to refuse to touch them or work with them.”

Mr Smith said the union would “never apologise for saving workers‘ lives”.

“We will always protect our members through any means necessary even if that means we don’t comply with some technical aspects of the Fair Work Act,” he said. “This tiptoeing towards action has gone on long enough. That’s why we’re setting a hard date and warning the bosses.”

He said the government should act “and I’m hopeful that they will … but if they don’t, we’ll be taking matters into our own hands. Enough’s enough. We’re talking about lives regularly destroyed that could have been long and happy. We’ll do what it takes.”

Australian Constructors Association chief executive Jon Davies said his organisation would prefer the government not to legislate a ban: “Ultimately, our preference is to work through the issues collaboratively … without needing to resort to legislation banning products, which in the majority of cases are specified by our clients.”