Adem Somyurek’s union allies join Labor faction power struggle

Adem Somyurek’s former union powerbase will move to strike a new alliance.

Adem Somyurek is seen outside his home in Melbourne on June 16. Picture: AAP

Adem Somyurek’s former union powerbase will move to strike a new alliance amid concerns Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and federal leader Anthony Albanese will use the national executive takeover of the state division to bolster their Socialist Left ­faction.

Union leaders from the Industrial Left and Right factions, including the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union and the Australian Workers Union, will meet on Tuesday to discuss how they can keep their ­alliance together despite the fall of Mr Somyurek.

The Australian understands state MP Tim Richardson is acting as leader of the Somyurek factional grouping and will attend the meeting with other state and federal MPs loyal to the alliance.

In an attempt to unite the Victorian Right, former state secretary Sam Rae has been invited to attend Tuesday’s meeting on behalf of the only right-wing grouping opposed to Mr Somyurek.

Mr Rae’s “Cons” faction, which includes deputy Labor leader Richard Marles, was created by former senator Stephen Conroy and is an outlier with the rest of the Victorian Right for its bitter feuding with the Somyurek forces.

Sources say an alliance between the entire Victorian Right and the Industrial Left would act as a power balance against the Socialist Left and ensure Mr Andrews’s faction does not hold too much sway when a new “stability” power deal is negotiated.

They believe a united voice would deter national executive, of which the federal Opposition Leader has a casting vote, from favouring Socialist Left candidates in federal and state preselections.

Sources in the Industrial Left and Somyurek-aligned Right say the alliance covered two-thirds of state union and ALP members.

Figures from the Victorian Right and the Socialist Left will also hold a meeting on Tuesday.

Industrial Left unions, which have sought legal advice from Maurice Blackburn on the national intervention into the Victorian branch, will meet with Mr Andrews this week.

The anti-Somyurek forces played down the significance of a new alliance agreement because the voting rights of all Victorian members have been cancelled until 2023 under the intervention by national executive. “They are not going to have a vote in anything,’’ a Labor source said. ‘‘There is nothing to have a vote in. Admin has been abolished, there is no conferences. It doesn’t matter.”

Figures from the Socialist Left said the structure of the Victorian division could look completely different after a review is completed by party luminaries Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin.

They also doubted the Cons would ever agree to join the ­alliance.

Mr Albanese, a member of the NSW Socialist Left, holds a casting vote on the national executive and some Victorian MPs are worried it could be used to favour his own faction in the event of preselections, particularly in seats to be created from a redistribution.

There are also concerns national executive could replace sitting MPs who were aligned with Mr Somyurek in the next round of preselections.

“In the Soviet era, the leadership didn’t need much of a reason to get rid of what they believed were their enemies,” a Victorian Right source said.

Socialist Left MPs ridiculed the concerns of the Somyurek forces, declaring “it was (Mr Somyurek) who was the one threatening sitting MPs”.

The national executive has 10 members from the Left and 10 from the Right, with Mr Albanese holding the deciding vote in the event of a deadlock.