CFMEU brawl headed for court

CFMEU infighting will be aired in court after national secretary Michael O’Connor launched legal action against John Setka.

CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka. Picture: Morgan Sette

Months of infighting within the CFMEU will be aired in court after national secretary Michael O’Connor launched legal action against Victorian secretary John Setka and 29 union officials over alleged poaching of members from other divisions.

Mr O’Connor is seeking permanent­ orders stopping Mr Setka and the other union offic­ials from “encouraging or advising any members of the union in the Victorian district of the manufacturing division of the union” to resign their membership of the division.

The Australian reported in August that officials within the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union said Mr Setka and Mr O’Connor were “at war”.

Sources said a barrister was briefed at the time and affidavits were prepared for a possible Federal Court action to seek an interlocutory injunction to prevent poaching by Mr Setka’s division.

It was reported that two organ­isers told senior officials Mr Setka had told them to defect from the manufact­uring division to construction, “or you won’t have a career left”. “When you come over, you are going to be pinching their (manufacturing) members,” he alleged­ly said.

Sources said poaching members from a rival division was in breach of union rules.

Mr O’Connor filed an affidavit with the Federal Court this week. Affidavits were also filed on behalf of senior national assistant secretary of the manufacturing division Leo Skour­doum­bis and manufacturing division lead organiser Steve Abboushi.

Mr O’Connor is seeking an order that members who were enrolled in the Victoria-­Tasmania divisional branch of the construction and general division of the union since ­August be transferred back to the manufacturing division.

He also wants members’ union dues returned to the manufacturing division and an order made that the construction division not negotiate any enterprise agreements that would cover the members.

No date has been set for a hearing.

In September, CFMEU nat­ion­al mining and energy division president Tony Maher received support for a motion condemning Mr Setka’s “unprincipled ­actions” in stealing members from other divisions. He said the union would not tolerate “breaches of rules and the principle of divisional autonomy”.

Mr Setka was forced out of the Labor Party in October after Anthony ­Albanese moved to have him ­expelled over his treatment of women. Mr Setka pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in June to harassing his wife.

A dozen unions and the ACTU called for him to resign from the CFMEU after it emerged he told the national executive that domestic violence laws had become too skewed against men as a result of advocate Rosie Batty’s campaigns and the royal commission into family violence.

Additional reporting: AAP