‘Attacks made to discredit me in stand against John Setka’, says CFMEU delegate

A union delegate says multiple threats include burning his house down unless he pulls out of CFMEU branch committee race.

CFMEU delegate Steve Ellis is standing against John Setka. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

Explosive allegations have rocked the John Setka-led Victorian CFMEU after a union delegate claimed he and his family were threatened with physical violence and threats to “burn my house down to the ground” unless he aborted his nomination for the union’s branch committee.

The damaging claims by Steve Ellis, who intends to stand against Mr Setka at union elections, are detailed in a complaint to the ­Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union’s nat­ional secretary, Michael O’Connor, ­obtained by The Australian.

Mr Ellis, 31, is seeking action against a paid Victorian organiser who he claims has made “multiple false and misleading allegations” on the union’s Facebook pages, which included calling Mr Ellis a “low-life dog”.

Mr Ellis, a crane yard delegate for five years, says he is “no stranger to intimidation”, having nominated for the union’s division­al branch committee of management in 2016,

“Almost immediately after nominating, I began to receive threatening phone calls on a nightly basis — issuing threats of physical violence against myself and my family, as well as threats to burn my house down to the ground unless I removed my nomination and pulled out of the election,” his complaint says.

Victorian CFMEU head John Setka. Picture: Morgan Sette/The Australian

“The cowards never supplied their names. On two occasions, ­locations were agreed upon to meet and fight it out. Both times I waited two hours but nobody ever showed up.”

He said he told a branch meeting that the “cowards who were calling me were welcome to meet me in Trades Hall car park to ­settle it like men”, but again nobody­ showed up.

He told The Australian he had no evidence CFMEU officers or members made the threats but after he withdrew his nomination “due to overwhelming stress”, the phone calls stopped.

Mr Ellis said he did not refer the threats to police as “police are no friend of the working class, hence why I preferred to have the matter handled in-house”.

In his complaint, he lists commen­ts on Facebook by the organiser­ that included claims Mr Ellis worked through rallies and rain, did not do the “bare minim­um” as a delegate, and only raised his head every four years during union elections. Mr Ellis called for an independent investigation, an apology by the organiser and ­access to union lawyers to launch a “slander lawsuit”.

He told The Australian he believed the attacks were designed to discredit him because he intended to stand against Mr Setka.

Mr Ellis said Mr Setka should have stood down last year after pleading guilty to a charge of breaching a court order and another­ of harassing a woman by text messages. Mr Setka’s wife, Emma Walters, later identified herself as the victim.

“I would have stood down and put the unions before myself,” Mr Ellis said. “He chose to keep his job and keep his salary. He’s done a lot of damage and isolated us from the rest of the movement.”

He acknowledged he had a “slim prospect” of beating Mr Set­ka, but wanted to take a stand against the union leadership’s conduct. He was critical of union ads being run on radio and television, saying union funds were being used for electioneering.

Mr Ellis claimed a $15,000 allowance was removed from a mobile­ crane hire agreement without any explanation. He said he sought an explanation from Mr Setka, who had not responded.

“They don’t appreciate people speaking up about stuff like that,” Mr Ellis said. “The CFMEU Victorian­ branch is worse than the Catholic Church when it comes to covering up things and protecting their mistakes. They never admit any wrong.”

He said he had been a member of the ALP’s Werribee branch but quit after witnessing branch stacking. “There were maybe 15 people who were branch members but when a vote came up, suddenly there were 300 people. Obviously, it was branch stacking,” he said.

Dave Noonan, the union’s national­ construction division secretary, said “any complaint will be dealt with according to the rules of the union”, and the ­privacy of the parties involved would be ­respected. Mr O’Connor and Mr Setka did not respond to a request for comment.