Focus: The threat is real

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 5 Volume 21 Issue 1 2014 the site for several days before police riot squad broke the picket. Concerns about blacklisting Unions have several times unsuccessfully urged the Australian Privacy Commissioner to investigate the alleged use of personal information for blacklisting purposes. So the ETU-Grocon case is important in bringing public attention onto blacklisting, which has long been suspected to be rife in the construction industry in Australia. The ETU is seeking penalties for breaches of sections of the Fair Work Act by Grocon, compensation for the workers, and a court order that it cannot threaten to refuse to engage certain subcontractors who have known union activists on their books. The Victorian State Secretary of the ETU, Troy Gray, said these concerns were not isolated to Grocon. But he said Grocon’s behaviour was the most overt. “There hasn’t been genuine worker representation on Grocon projects going back six or seven years ago . . . There’s been blacklisting going on in the construction industry for years but we’ve never seen it at this level of absolute control”, he said. Mr Gray said the union had taken the legal action because of members’ concerns about safety on the Grocon sites, without any representation or elected safety representatives. He said the alleged intervention by Grocon had also jeopardised the employment of union members who have house mortgages and family living costs to maintain. “Blacklisting is one of the most barbaric things a company can do to its workers”, he said. “To deny a worker the ability to put food on the table for their families, for standing up for their fellow workers’ rights, is disgusting. “We must, and will, use any legal means at our disposal to put a stop to any form of blacklisting of workers”. Blacklisting ‘widespread’ in the mining industry On the other side of the country, in the Western Australian capital of Perth, ‘Sam’ wants some answers as to why he hasn’t been able to get a job since 2010. Sam (whose name has been changed at his request) has spent the past 30 years working as a rigger on large construction sites all over Australia and parts of the rest of the world, but since 2010, he hasn’t been able to get a job. Sam had been working on the construction of O NE of Australia’s largest construction companies with aspirations to being a global player has been accused of unlawfully blocking union delegates from working on its building sites in a case that has echoes of the blacklisting scandal in the UK. In a case underway in Australia’s Federal Court, the Victorian branch of the Electrical Trades Union has alleged that building giant Grocon has pressured sub-contractors not to employ known union members on projects in Melbourne. The ETU alleges that at least three card-carrying electricians were each blocked from working on a high-profile city centre retail development, following intervention by Grocon senior management . Grocon has denied the substance of the claims by the ETU, which are still working their way through the courts. But in July last year, after the ETU launched its legal action, Grocon gave undertakings in court that it would not prevent the union members from being employed on its Myer Emporium project , pending a full hearing of the case. Grocon, which began as a small family concreting business in Melbourne in the 1950s has grown to be a multi-billion dollar construction giant, and under the guidance of Executive Chairman Daniel Grollo has set its sights on becoming a global player. Attempts to de-unionise the workforce Daniel Grollo inherited the business 14 years ago from his father, Bruno, who was known as a tough but fair employer who had a good and trusting relationship with unions. But Daniel Grollo has never hidden his contempt for organised labour and several times over the past decade and a bit has attempted to deunionise the company. In 2002, he attempted to bypass the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union by urging employees to sign a non-union agreement . It was voted down by workers who stuck with the union. But...