CFMEU’s Richie Hassett wants tick for stadium for redundant Bridgewater Bridge workers

Workers made redundant now the Bridgewater Bridge is finished are hoping the Macquarie Point stadium will be their next job. Find out why.

Macquarie Point Stadium at night. Picture supplied

A key building union says workers made redundant after the completion of the new Bridgewater Bridge are keen to “get cracking” on the proposed Macquarie Point stadium.

CFMEU organiser Richie Hassett said well over 100 workers of the 200 person workforce on the bridge had already been made redundant.

“Gradually everyone will be gone,” he said.

“You might be able to drive over the top of the bridge but there is remedial work that still needs to be done so a small amount will stay until September.”

CFMEU's Richard "Richie" Hassett.

Mr Hassett said some bridge workers would head interstate and others might chose to leave construction if the Macquarie Point stadium did not proceed.

“There are not many projects in the pipeline in the south, so they are just waiting to go to the stadium,” he said.

“If it gets the tick of approval local workers will hang about but some might decide there are greater opportunities elsewhere.”

Richie Hassett CFMEU Tasmania organiser meeting with members at the site of the new Bridgewater Bridge. Picture: CFMEU

If the stadium proceeds, the CFMEU says there will be work in the building industry for the next 10 years.

“If we get a sports precinct at Macquarie Point there will be a decade’s worth of work with everything that goes with that,” Mr Hassett said.

“We’ve always been pro-stadium from day one.

“If it has to be at Macquarie Point then that’s where it has to be built.

“We stand ready to get cracking to turn the first sod.”

Mr Hassett said some workers made redundant with the Bridgewater Bridge may choose other occupations.

“They are highly skilled tradespeople who can turn their hand to anything,” he said.

Mr Hassett said he believed there was a “lot of pressure” on the AFL to renegotiate the stadium deal but he believed they would stand firm.

Originally published as CFMEU’s Richie Hassett wants tick for stadium for redundant Bridgewater Bridge workers