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Australian Financial Review: A new construction industry regulator - one of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's top priorities - would end the corrupt union's stranglehold over labour and reshape the entire industry, a union veteran says.
Brian Fitzpatrick, an organiser in the Construction, Mining, Forestry and Energy Union for 25 years, said the union was able to drive up wages because most workers were more loyal to it than their employers.
"It will shift the whole balance of power in the industry," Mr Fitzpatrick said in an interview on Wednesday. "It will completely nullify the power of the union."
He also said the trade union royal commission last year had failed to end corruption in the union's NSW division. "They are still taking money," he said. "They don't want to do anything about it." The Australian Building and Construction Commission, which the Senate will consider approving next month, is shaping up as one of the bigger political battles of the year. It is unclear if the government has enough Senate votes to re-establish the commission. A failure would be a big political embarrassment.
Higher costs
Opponents, including ACTU secretary Ged Kearney and Greens leader Richard Di Natale, portray the commission as an attack on workers' rights. But insiders like Mr Fitzpatrick see the agency as being used to shift industrial power away from the union, which critics say pushes up the cost of construction through aggressive bargaining and ignoring court rulings.
"Whoever gets the rule of law on their side will entirely be in control," said Mr Fitzpatrick, who opposes the commission because he believes it will reduce union power.
A study by the Productivity Commission two years ago found wages in the construction industry had risen faster than other industries since 1998. Infrastructure Australia, a government agency, commissioned research that found Australian projects were 40 per cent more expensive than in the US and required 30 to 35 per cent more labour. Mr Fitzpatrick, 73, coordinated organisers for the union's construction division until 2013 when he fell out with its leaders in NSW after complaining of being threatened by another union official.
The Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, which was headed by former High Court judge Dyson Heydon, found the CFMEU didn't properly investigate his complaint and that he was victimised after making it.
Mr Fitzpatrick, who is still a member of the union, said other members were disappointed it hadn't been cleaned up since the royal commission last year recommended charges against several current and former CFMEU officials. "The feeling among the workers is very disappointed because nothing has happened," he said. "In NSW it's definitely corrupt." The union declined to comment.
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