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HANDS OFF THE CFMEU!
Statement on the sacking of OHS organiser Esther Van Arend
28 November 2024
Van Arend, who has been a vocal critic of Irving – taking him to task in a recent meeting of CFMEU organisers for his eagerness to disparage the CFMEU and its officials in the media before actually meeting with them – was shown no procedural fairness in her termination. In fact, Irving didn’t even seek a version of events from her before sending a blunt letter dismissing her for alleged ‘menacing conduct’.
The CFMEU Administrator who prides himself on ‘having written the book on workplace laws’ seems to relish the fact that those laws and the generally accepted principles that underpin them simply don’t apply to him. Incredibly, the government has legislated a scheme that gives him complete autocratic control of the union with no accountability to the union’s members.
Any unionist would notice a worrying trend here. First, on the back of untested and as yet unproven allegations, the government completely dismantles the Union’s democratic governing processes, removing some 270 officials from their positions across the country, with 12 losing their employment despite there being no specific allegations against them. Next, the undemocratically installed Administrator starts sacking officials who dare to question him at the stroke of a pen, without any due process, natural justice or recourse to unfair dismissal laws.
Meanwhile, McKenzie has been busy penning a self-congratulatory piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, patting himself on the back for his recent Gold Walkley award. Giving away that the story has always been a beat up, McKenzie writes:
‘We wanted to expose like never before – the activities of the gangland figures who were working in an unholy alliance with the union.’
He then goes on to say:
‘…state and federal police agencies are generally reluctant to invest time and resources into stamping out the building industry's pervasive organised crime and corruption.’
Is it really reluctance? Or could it be just a paucity of the kind of hard evidence that is required for an actual court case? As opposed to trial by sensationalist media. McKenzie’s much trumpeted Building Bad series has been long on spin and conjecture, but wafer thin in any real substance. The fact that no other media organisation appears willing to invest time in scrutinising McKenzie’s clearly politicised award-winning agenda is a sad indictment on the state of the Australian Press and the government’s slavishness to it.
Ultimately, whatever occurred in the altercation between Van Arend and McKenzie, since when has it become acceptable in Australian culture for people to lose their jobs without a fair go? If this is how the ALP sees fit to treat working people, then it shouldn’t be surprised if they abandon it in droves in the lead up to next year’s election.
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HANDS OFF THE CFMEU!