Union officials fined and banned for thuggery

Today’s newspapers carry two separate reports on union officials being fined or banned for illegal or threatening behaviour.

The Age and Herald Sun both report on fines totalling $43,000 imposed on the CFMEU and two union officials (including Shaun Reardon, pictured here) for illegally stopping work at a Hawthorn building site to try to force the developer to sign a union enterprise agreement.

The Herald Sun also reports that an AMWU official has been banned from entering work sites after threatening the family of a security guard on a West Gate Bridge project.

This shows the sort of violence and thuggery to which Premier Daniel Andrews is giving open season by his axing of Victoria’s construction industry code and the compliance unit that enforced it.

It also shows how important it is for the Senate to now pass the Abbott government’s legislation to bring back the Australian Building and Construction Commission with the powers needed to tackle this sort thuggish and illegal conduct on building sites.

To read more, see http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/cfmeu-fined-for-threatening-company-and-blockading-building-site-20150420-1movb6.html and http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/australian-manufacturing-workers-union-official-tony-mavromatis-banned-from-building-sites-for-threatening-security-guard/story-fni0fit3-1227312434751 .