Michael Bachelard August 18, 2007
THE Federal Government's building industry policeman has banned the Eureka flag and ordered construction companies to remove it from sites, saying its presence intimidates people into joining the union.
The Age has obtained a copy of an email from an Australian Building and Construction Commission staff member in Melbourne, Carol Hage, to an Adelaide building company telling them to remove the flag.
"The flag represents the union and gives the impression that to work on the site you need to be a union member. This is therefore a breach of freedom of association," Ms Hage wrote on July 5.
In Perth, the commission has ordered managers of construction company Multiplex to take down Eureka flags, presenting them with a booklet containing photos of their sites where flags were flying, and quotes linking it to the union.
The union is aware of similar action being taken in Victoria, though flags were visible on a number of sites yesterday. Under the Federal Government's national building code of conduct, the flag can be equated with " 'no ticket no start' signs
posters, helmets, stickers or union logos or flags etc that imply that union membership is anything other than a matter for individual choice". Under the Workplace Relations Act, nobody can be coerced to join, or not join, a union.
ABCC commissioner John Lloyd yesterday confirmed the policy, saying: "The ABCC draws any activity that is not consistent with the code to site owners' attention".
But Victorian Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union acting secretary Bill Oliver said: "No law in Australia yet prevents workers or employers from flying flags or wearing union T-shirts. It is unbelievable that the ABCC is wasting taxpayers' money on bullying employers to stop workers freely expressing themselves."
The flag first flew above the Eureka Stockade at the Ballarat goldfields in 1854, and has come to symbolise unity in defiance. It was adopted as a symbol by Norm Gallagher and the Builders' Labourers Federation in the 1970s.
The issue is a testament to the power of the commission and its interest in every aspect of life on construction sites. With powers more often seen in police corruption bodies, it is the most forceful expression of the Government's zeal for workplace changes. The commission has the power to force people to answer questions and provide documents, under threat of a six-month jail term, and jail them if they tell anybody about the questioning.
It can seek $28,600 fines against individual workers for taking illegal industrial action.
Almost two years after its inception, unions believe it is a draconian body that should immediately be abolished. Labor is not so sure, preferring to wait until 2010 and see.
But construction industry leaders say it has had a positive effect on their fractious and dangerous industry.
Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.
http://www.iww.org/culture/official/preamble.shtml
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