Rebel blue-collar unions reject Labor’s unity call

Rebel blue-collar unions have defied Labor’s call to unite behind the government and the ACTU to fight the Coalition ahead of the upcoming federal election.

Senator Murray Watt will address the ACTU executive on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Rebel blue-collar unions have defied Labor’s call to unite behind the government and the ACTU to fight the Coalition ahead of the upcoming federal election, declaring the union movement “more divided than it’s ever been”.

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt will address the ACTU executive on Wednesday at the same time the rebel unions meet to approve a November summit that will debate setting up a rival union body to the ACTU and discuss where to direct significant political ­donations traditionally made to the ALP.

Senator Watt, who will also host the first meeting of the government’s new National Construction Industry Forum on Wednesday, told The Australian he was looking forward to addressing the ACTU executive “about the better pay and job security we’ve achieved for working people and what we’re fighting for, at the next election”.

“It’s not lost on me that the overwhelming majority of unions and their members endorse the ACTU and support the CFMEU construction division being put into administration,” he said.

“Now is the time for all who want workers to enjoy fair pay and conditions to unite behind a clear-eyed plan to protect the gains we’ve made together and ensure they aren’t taken away.

“Make no mistake, Peter Dutton and the Coalition represent the greatest threat to workers’ pay and conditions since Work Choices.”

But the Electrical Trades Union Victorian secretary Troy Gray said it was “ridiculous” for Senator Watt to call for unity when the government’s recent decision to put the CFMEU’s construction division into administration had caused major divisions in the labour movement.

“Under his decision-making and his decisions the union movement is more divided than it’s ever been,” Mr Gray told The Australian. “He needs to take some responsibility for that and maybe do others.

“But to say it’s a time to unite after introducing legislation that not even Margaret Thatcher would introduce in the ’70s and the ’80s is a bit much. To say all come under the one tent, hold hands and sing kumbaya is just ridiculous at this stage.

“You don’t introduce legislation representing the worst attack on unions for three decades and then 12 weeks later say let’s all unite. It’s fanciful.”

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said this week the blue-collar unions at the rival meeting on Wednesday represented “if you’re generous, 6 per cent of the whole union movement, it’s a small group of people”.

“The rest of us are actually totally united about (there being) no place for violence, intimidation, corruption, all of that,” she said.

Mr Gray also took issue with Senator Watt saying he would address the ACTU about the better pay and job security achieved under the Albanese government.

Referring to how Victorian construction unions recently signed up 700 employers to a 21 per cent pattern deal, Mr Gray said it was not Senator Watt, the ACTU or the CFMEU administrator, Mark Irving, who secured those pay rises for 15,000 workers.

“It was two mass rallies that shut down the Victorian construction industry and the threat of a 72-hour illegal stoppage that delivered those wage increases,” he said.

In decisions that will cost Labor millions of dollars, the ALP has banned donations from the CFMEU while the Electrical Trades Union is withholding more than $1m in political donations to the party in protest at the government’s conduct.

Blue-collar unions will examine bankrolling Greens and crossbench candidates at next year’s election in protest against the CFMEU’s construction division being forced into administration.

The stoush came as the Business Council of Australia backed the push by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to change the legal definition of a small business employer from 15 to 25 employees, despite Senator Watt opposing any winding back of unfair dismissal rights.

Under the existing workplace laws, workers need to be employed for at least six months before they can apply for unfair dismissal but those working for a small business need to be employed for at least 12 months.

BCA chief executive Bran Black said expanding the definition to 25 employees was an important change.

“What is necessary is that we take steps in order to support businesses and at the moment, we’re not doing enough to support businesses,” Mr Black told ABC Radio National.

“We’re seeing that insolvencies are at record highs over the course of the last six months. We’re seeing that productivity is stalling. Economic growth is stalling.

“What we need to do is advance ideas that are going to recognise that six in seven jobs ultimately come about through businesses being successful, and that at the end of the day, it’s the success of the private sector that drives our overarching national prosperity.”

But Senator Watt repeated his opposition in the wake of employers and the Coalition accusing the government of pre-empting a Fair Work Ombudsman review of the definition of small business.

“It comes down to the fact that right now we know that so many Australians are doing it tough and the last thing we should be doing is making it easier for businesses to sack people,” Senator Watt told the Nine Network’s Today program.

“This is a time that people need to hang on to their jobs, not be at risk of losing them and we don’t want to do anything that’s going to jeopardise this.”