Thousands of trade workers join strikes over Australian government’s union takeover

CANBERRA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — Tens of thousands of trade workers have walked off job sites across Australia in protest against the federal government’s takeover of the construction union.
Members of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) as well as the electrical, manufacturing and plumbers’ unions stopped work in major cities on Tuesday and joined rallies supporting the CFMEU.
The government on Friday placed all branches of the construction arm of the CFMEU into administration effective immediately, removing 270 union officers from volunteer positions and a further 11 from paid jobs amid allegations of widespread corruption and links to organized crime within the union.
It came after parliament earlier in August passed legislation allowing the government to take control of the construction union for a minimum of three years.
Workers gathered in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and Cairns on Tuesday in protest against the takeover, putting building projects at a standstill.
Speaking at a press conference earlier on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned there would be consequences for workers who participated in unprotected industrial action, saying that the government’s actions were in the interests of all trade unionists.
“You need to have unions in the building industry, it’s a dangerous industry,” Albanese, who leads the union-linked Labor Party, said.
“What we want to do, though, is to make sure that their union is free of corruption.”
Addressing protesters in Melbourne, Troy Gray, secretary of the Electrical Trade Unions in the state of Victoria, said that unions were considering legal challenges to the government’s legislation.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the government expected some blowback from the union laws but called for protesters to remain peaceful and calm. ■