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AREEA applies the heat on CFMEU – MUA merger

THE PROPOSED merger of the militant maritime and construction unions would create a lawless organisation of unprecedented industrial power, leading to significant potential losses to the Australian economy, resources and energy group AREEA has warned Australia’s national industrial relations body.

In an affidavit filed before the Fair Work Commission (FWC), AREEA Principal Workplace Relations Consultant Peter Cooke presented resource and energy employers’ compelling case for blocking the pending merger of Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFU).

“AREEA and its affected members are extremely concerned that the proposed amalgamation presents a significant threat to the proper and efficient function of the resources sector, which in turn, may threaten the viability of many businesses in Australia,” Mr Cooke says in his affidavit.

“AREEA members have a strong interest in this proposed amalgamation due to a number of members being party to enterprise agreements. Our members are concerned that the CFMEU and the MUA could attempt to strangle the industry through non-genuine negotiations and with high-stakes threats of industry-wide industrial action.”

Mr Cooke’s affidavit provides evidence of a consistent pattern of ‘unlawful, confrontational, and aggressive industrial tactics’, detailing a number of incidents, statements and other matters on the public record that highlight the risk to the Australian economy and broader community if the merger was allowed to proceed.

He notes there are 47 civil penalty cases, or associated appeals, currently in progress involving the CFMEU or MUA, and that a merged union would control more than $146 million in annual revenues and $310 million in assets.

“The (unions) have been vocal in stating that the proposed amalgamation will create a ‘super union’ that will have a significantly detrimental impact upon the operations of affected Australian employers, many of whom are AREEA members,” Mr Cooke says.

“If it proceeds, the (unions) will be able to take co-ordinated action, including industrial action, across the supply chains servicing many of Australia’s largest and most important resources projects.”

Mr Cooke says AREEA’s objection to the merger is not just due to the potential economic losses of its affected members, but because of the critical importance of Australia’s resources security of supply to the nation’s broader prosperity.

Read AREEA’s full affidavit here.

National media continues hard-line against merger

Major media organisations look set to continue to closely scrutinise the impacts of the proposed merger, if recent coverage by the Australian Financial Review is any indication.

In addition to its heavy coverage last week of AREEA’s concerns, as detailed in Mr Cooke’s affidavit to the FWC, the AFR also published an editorial highlighting issues with the proposed amalgamation.

“The organisation that sits atop Australia’s industrial relations club, the Fair Work Commission, is seriously considering whether or not to allow a quasi-criminal union to merge with another historically militant union to control the supply of labour at Australian mine pits and on the ports from which resources will be exported,” writes the AFR in ‘The MUA-CFMEU union merger made in industrial relations hell’, (18 January 2018).

“Possibilities to exert their new control would be almost endless: a dispute on a building site or at a mine could result in a go-slow at the ports. And that can have real consequences, and send global customers elsewhere.

“It shouldn’t be forgotten that union militancy during Australia’s late 1970s mining boom provoked Japan to help develop and finance the Brazilian iron ore industry.”

Read the full AFR editorial here.

Read coverage of AREEA’s affidavit to the FWC here.

Read further reporting of this issue in last week’s press here.

AREEA is leading the campaign of opposition to the proposed CFMEU-MUA merger on behalf of not only Australia’s resources and energy employers, but the entire business community. The litigation and representations involved require significant resources, including engagement of external legal support.

All AREEA members are exposed to the potential merger. If it goes ahead unchallenged, the proposed merger will result in disruption to Australian business, specifically through its unprecedented coverage of the resources and building sectors, fuelled by $310 million in assets.

We are asking all members to support AREEA’s ongoing campaign. For more information on how to be involved, contact Amanda Mansini, Director Workplace Relations via [email protected].

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