CFMEU boss John Setka and his deputy Shaun Reardon arrested and charged

Victorian construction union boss John Setka and his deputy Shaun Reardon have been charged with blackmail.

Victorian construction union boss John Setka and his deputy Shaun Reardon at this year’s ALP National Conference. Picture: Mark Stewart

Victorian construction union boss John Setka and his deputy Shaun Reardon have been dramatically arrested and charged with blackmail over a bitter industrial dispute with Boral.

Police pulled over Mr Setka this morning driving with his children aged 3.5 and 2 years while Mr Reardon was arrested at his home near Geelong.

The unionists have been charged with a count of blackmail each over the pressure by the Construction, Foresty, Mining and Energy Union on supplier Boral during the union’s long-running industrial war with construction firm Grocon.

Mr Setka and Mr Reardon have been ordered to appear in the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court on December 8.

The charges stem from Taskforce Heracles, a joint Victorian and federal police unit which investigates cases referred from the Royal Commission into Trade Union Corruption and Governance. In a statement this afternoon the taskforce said the charges followed a “lengthy investigation”.

Boral has declined to comment.

Construction union national secretary Dave Noonan said Mr Setka, 51, and Mr Reardon, 47, would plead “not guilty”. He slammed the arrests as “overkill”.

“The CFMEU has cooperated with every request from the Royal Commission and the police could have conducted their business at the office during working hours,” Mr Noonan said.

“The arrests were conducted in front of both families and reek of overkill.

“The community can only hope that the rest of the case against the men is made as public as these arrests.”

Victorian construction union boss John Setka and his deputy Shaun Reardon at this year’s ALP National Conference. Picture: Mark Stewart

Mr Noonan said treating union officials like fugitives on the run was obviously designed to create maximum political damage to the union with little regard for their families.

“The CFMEU and its members understand and appreciate the important role that the police play, and are disgusted by their conduct and politicisation in these matters,’’ he said.

“The community expects more of the police. We should be able to trust that our police are not doing the grunt work of a Government desperate to mount an attack on the working rights of people in this country.

“The Federal Liberal Government has taken 57 police and assigned them to a taskforce whose only achievements to date include two theatrical raids whose legality is in doubt, the prolonged questioning and harassment of staff in their homes, the failed pursuit of Johnny Lomax without any evidence and now, the hyper-staged arrests of two senior officers of the union.”

John Setka, left with Joe McDonald, centre, and Shaun Reardon. Picture: Mark Stewart