About 200 people rallied at Town Hall Square to protest the federal government's proposed new citizenship laws. The new laws extend the residential waiting period for citizenship and raise the standard of the English-language test.
Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU)
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has called for a national day of rallies for June 20 to stop the attacks on workers.
This is the second national day of action called by the CFMEU this year, with a previous round of rallies having taken place in March.
State vice president of the CFMEU鈥檚 Victorian Construction and General Division Robert Graauwmans gave this speech at Socialist Alliance鈥檚 May Day Dinner in Geelong on May 6. Below is an edited version of his speech.
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I鈥檝e been asked to speak on the topic of 鈥淲hy we should break bad laws鈥 and while I welcome the invitation and the topic, tonight I will not talk about the whether we need to break bad laws, but rather, why we must defy injustice.
Unionists and their supporters defied a police ban on this year鈥檚 traditional May Day march with a militant march and rally of some 500 unionists and their supporters through the city鈥檚 streets on May 6.
An obstructive Wollongong City Council had blocked police approval and demanded a hefty fee for private security services.
South Coast working class icon and veteran class fighter, 95-year-old Fred Moore, proudly marched at the front. He has never missed a May Day march since his first in 1932.
The Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) was dealt another embarrassing blow on March 21.
The Federal Court dismissed all claims against the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) after finding prosecutors had made a deal with a confessed blackmailer to give evidence for the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) in return for staying out of jail.
Hundreds of trade unionists braved the rain at Solidarity Park, outside the WA State Parliament, on March 21 to protest against what the organisers describe as a 鈥渨ar on workers鈥.
Will the election of former Australian Services Union NSW head Sally McManus as ACTU secretary result in a strategic shift in the trade union movement in this country? Many unionists and activists are hoping so.
The government is tightening the screws on workers and the poor, intent on further attacks on the social wage, privatising health, education and welfare services and attacking refugees. We need to fight back. Strong, fighting unions are essential to building an effective resistance to corporate power and to defending our rights.
A Federal Court judge has blasted the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) for wasting time and taxpayers' money on taking two Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) officials to court for 鈥渉aving a cup of tea with a mate鈥.
Justice Tony North said on March 10 it was 鈥渁stounding鈥 that the ABCC had conducted days of hearing with dozens of participants over two years for 鈥渟uch a miniscule, insignificant affair鈥.
By now you must have heard. The ACTU has been taken over by a terrorist spouting, in , 鈥渁narchist Marxist clap trap鈥 about destroying the rule of law, and presumably replacing it with a reign of terror in which CFMEU thugs will drag innocent bosses and Liberal politicians to the guillotine.
Thousands of unionists attended protests around the country on March 9 in opposition to the federal government's new building code, the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) and its planned penalty rate cuts.
The rallies were called by the CFMEU Construction Division and supported by the ACTU and individual unions. Community anger against the cuts to wages and conditions was palpable.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and other construction unions are organising national rallies on Thursday March 9 against the Turnbull government鈥檚 war on construction workers.
The resurrected Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) is an attack on the industry and it will endanger lives.
Derryn Hinch and the three Nick Xenophon Team Senators voted with the government on February 15 to pass a bill fast-tracking the new federal building code that outlaws union-friendly agreements on Commonwealth-funded building sites, such as schools, hospitals and roads.
The clauses include union consultation provisions, restrictions on the use of labour hire staff, and requirements for non-working site delegates.
Up to 3000 construction companies will now聽have to聽replace their union-friendly agreements before they can become eligible to win聽lucrative federal contracts.
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