John Setka ‘has no interest’ in ending union brawl

CFMEU national secretary ­Mich­ael O’Connor has accused John Setka of poaching union members to damage him.

CFMEU boss John Setka is tested for coronavirus on a construction site in Melbourne this week. Picture: AAP

CFMEU national secretary ­Mich­ael O’Connor has accused John Setka of poaching union members to damage him, declaring the union’s Victorian boss has no ­interest in resolving a bitter dispute inside the nation’s most militant union.

In affidavits released by the Federal Court after The Weekend Australian challenged the court’s initial refusal to release them, Mr O’Connor reveals a series of ­behind-closed-doors clashes between the union’s senior officials, laying bare divisions within the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union.

Mr O’Connor, who is also secretary of the union’s manufacturing division, made the affidavits in support of legal action that alleged Mr Setka’s construction branch breached CFMEU rules by poaching more than 200 members from the manufacturing division.

Mr O’Connor lost the legal ­action but has lodged an appeal. Mr Setka said it was a “shame” the dispute had gone to court and it should have been resolved within the union.

But in a February 7 affidavit, Mr O’Connor said Mr Setka and the construction branch had “no genuine interest in resolving the dispute and are primarily motivated by a desire to cause harm to me and to the manufacturing division”.

“I have this view because Setka has publicly accused the manufacturing division of leaking information that has been against Setka’s interest and has announced that he will pursue those who he thinks has leaked information against him,” Mr O’Connor said.

He provided detailed accounts of a series of “8-pack” meetings — attended by the two senior officials of the union’s four divisions — where he tried but failed to resolve the dispute with Mr Setka.

At a September 26 meeting, Mr O’Connor said he and manufacturing division deputy Leo Skourdoumbis expressed concern that Mr Setka’s branch was encouraging glaziers and floor layers to quit the manufacturing division and join the construction branch.

Construction division national secretary Dave Noonan said the construction division had coverage of some of the work but Mr O’Connor told him he was wrong. Tony Maher, the union’s mining division president, asked Mr Setka: “Are you trying to inflict real pain on manufacturing or are you trying to give O’Connor a blood nose?” Mr Setka did not respond.

After Mr Skourdoumbis said Mr Setka’s organisers were going into factories and recruiting manufacturing division members, Mr Setka said he would go back to his branch to “pull this back”, but it would take some time.

Mr O’Connor said he understood Mr Setka was committing to ceasing the poaching and the dispute was resolved. The meeting ended “with everybody shaking hands”. But at an October 2 meeting, construction branch officials, including Mr Noonan, said the manufacturing division owed money to Mr Setka’s branch.

Mr Setka’s deputy, Elias Spernovasilis, accused Mr Skourdoumbis of leaking to the media, waving around copies of newspaper articles. He said he was upset Mr Maher gave a television interview backing the court action.

Mr O’Connor said Mr Spernovasilis and Mr Setka went on to make “negative and derogatory” comments about the manufacturing division, including Mr Setka saying, “You guys are shit”.

When Mr O’Connor raised the membership dispute, he said Mr Spernovasilis and Mr Setka said their shop stewards were “pissed off and it was going to be hard to pull them back”. As the duo kept attacking the manufacturing division, Mr O’Connor said the discussion was not going anywhere and the meeting ended.

At an October 8 meeting, maritime division president Chris Cain called for the dispute to be fixed as the union was being attacked “from all sides” and could not afford to be split. Mr Setka said he would try to speak to his officials and try to get them to stop recruiting manufacturing members.

Mr O’Connor said he again asked at a November 12 meeting for the poaching to stop, but Mr Spernovasilis responded by ­accusing Mr Skourdoumbis of “shitcanning the construction division” to the media. Mr Spernovasilis said the organisers could not be pulled back as “it had gone too far and it now couldn’t be stopped”.

At a December 6 meeting, Mr Spernovasilis denied poaching two manufacturing division organisers, saying they had “come begging for a job”. Mr Setka said manufacturing members “have been pleading with us for years for us to sign them up”.

Mr O’Connor, in his affidavit, quoted Mr Setka saying: “This started with me wanting to give Michael O’Connor a bloody nose but has now gone much further than that and I can't pull it back."