The RAFFWU Committee makes the following statement:
For weeks we have seen sustained attacks on CFMEU.
Of course, no-one supports any criminal conduct, anywhere. However, alleged criminality is not and cannot be the basis for the sustained attacks by some of the most powerful people and organisations in Australia against the CFMEU. The government has abandoned processes for investigating alleged criminality despite the rule of law in Australia requiring a presumption of innocence.
CFMEU has delivered for its members in construction. CFMEU members are paid decent, respectful, living wages. Workers are far safer and less likely to be killed at work because of CFMEU organisation and action. When a worker is injured, work stops until it is safe. The bosses hate this.
ALP, ACTU, Bosses and other elites don’t know what it is to work hard and still not have enough to feed our families or put a roof over our head. They hate that workers who don’t look like them, earn more than them. They see construction workers as they see fast food and retail workers, less than them.
At RAFFWU we know exactly the kind of ‘union’ they support. The SDA has overseen the largest wage theft in Australian history. Their tame yellow unionism, always on the side of bosses, is anathema to genuine democratic unions putting members first. SDA has been unequivocally on the side of bosses for many decades. That has cost Australian workers billions of dollars. In return, the bosses help them pressure the next generation of child workers to pay up to 15% of their wages into SDA. That channels the stolen wages of children into the coffers of the ALP and ACTU.
Meanwhile, the children are left in unsafe workplaces paid pitifully low poverty wages. When a worker is abused, assaulted or threatened with murder in our supermarkets or fast food outlets, they are told to suck it up, that it’s just part of the job. Every possible effort is made to avoid losing a sale. The cost of a yellow union is much more than just the stolen wages.
SDA, ALP, ACTU and Bosses knew millions were having billions stolen from them – and didn’t lift a finger to stop it. They do not care about retail and fast food workers. They were expendable in their industrial complex. So are construction workers. Political expediency and a complete disregard for international law sees workers thrown to the wolves.
We know whose side we are on. We have always been on the side of workers. It’s workers whose hearts, minds and bones break as the bosses amass profits stolen from our pay cheques. If there are criminal elements, they should be dealt with by the law. Instead, those who have always looked down on us with contempt want to break our spirit. We won’t let them. We stand with CFMEU members and every other unionist who decries the evil of yellow unionism and fights tirelessly for a real solidarity that is forever.
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