Thursday, August 30, 2012 7:36:25 PM
dbleagl, Corporate/government attack on union rights in Australia
Grocon workers 'enter Emporium site' as CFMEU dispute continues
Chris Gillett, Aleks Devic - Herald Sun - August 31, 2012 7:07AM
Police in riot gear assemble at the Emporium site as the industrial dispute enters its 10th day. Source: Herald Sun
UPDATE: SOME Grocon employees have been safely escorted into the $250 million
Emporium site in the CBD after hundreds of police secured the area this morning.
Grocon chief executive Daniel Grollo told 3AW that some employees had returned to the site this morning, but didn't say when or how many were there.
Victoria Police said workers were able to enter the site at about 7am.
Police said they would continue to have a presence at the site "to ensure the safety of all parties involved".
Hundreds of police blocked off Lonsdale St and secured the Grocon building site shortly after 3am, surrounding the inner-city block and redirecting traffic as about 1500 unionists gathered as the bitter industrial dispute enters its 10th day.
Unionists
Unionists chant during a speech outside the Emporium site.
The police airwing joined the mounted police, who were at the ready to try and break the picket line, which is in breach of a Supreme Court order.
At one point, workers walked into the middle of the road, blocking cars and public transport on Swanston St.
Unionists clashed with police when they tried to help Grocon workers enter the site on Tuesday.
Police on horseback stand defiant in the rain on day 10 of the picket line. Picture: Trevor Pinder
CFMEU state president Ralph Edwards told workers to stay strong after crisis talks between the union and Grocon failed last night.
"Don't be afraid to get on your phones and invite your friends," he said this morning.
"We are here to stay. We have laid seeds for this job. We are here to stay. We are not here to have a brawl.
Police in riot gear assemble at the Emporium site as the industrial dispute enters its 10th day.
"The folks (police) on the other side of the temporary fence are not here to stay.
"We have rights. We are going to defend our rights. We will have a point, I don't know when, where busses will be brought in.
"What we are going to do is continue to lay siege. We ain't going away, this is going to be a long fight."
"Say what you like to them but we are not going to have a brawl."
Workers protest again ahead of meeting [ embedded video: http://video.heraldsun.com.au/?2274175807 ]
"We are here to show we have strength."
Despite encouraging unionists to spread the word of the protests, Mr Edwards gagged the unionists from talking to the media.
He told the crowd that the media had misrepresented the union's cause and said nobody was doing themselves any favours by talking to journalists.
Earlier, Mr Edwards said that unionists were "not here to have a war" with officers.
CBD protesters doused with capsicum spray [ embedded video http://video.heraldsun.com.au/?2273246051 ]
"We are here because of Daniel Grollo. We are not dealing with a public listed company we are dealing with Daniel Grollo," he said.
"We are not here to have a blue with the police.
Vic police clash with building workers [ embedded video: http://video.heraldsun.com.au/?2273224954 ]
"We are not going to have a bloodbath.
"If you have come here to settle some argument with the police, I'll tell you now 'piss off'.
"We are here because the union has a job to do."
Drivers have been advised to look out for diversions along Lonsdale St, Swanston St and Little Bourke St.
Mr Grollo and CFMEU heavyweights Bill Oliver and John Setka were locked in talks at Fair Work Australia yesterday.
Mr Grollo said he could not abide by FWA president Iain Ross's recommendation of a two-week "cooling-off period", which would have seen the CFMEU suspend its industrial action while further talks continued.
"The proposal put to us today ... is totally unacceptable," Mr Grollo said.
"The concept that the illegal blockade and intimidation is only to be temporarily lifted is unacceptable."
Mr Oliver, CFMEU Victorian secretary, said he didn't understand why Mr Grollo had rejected the FWA's proposal, which also would have seen Grocon suspend its legal action against the union.
"Obviously there'll be people down there," Mr Oliver said yesterday.
"We were quite happy to go there tomorrow morning to tell those people ... go back to work and then see where we go for the next two weeks.
"(It's) disappointing from the union's point of view."
Mr Grollo said he had told the tribunal the company's position had not changed and that the company could only negotiate with the union if it lifted the blockade for good.
"I appeal to the CFMEU leadership to obey the law, remove the blockade and allow Grocon's workers to safely return to their jobs," Mr Grollo said.
The union blockade of Grocon's $250 million Emporium site is entering its tenth day, and workers are expected to return in their hundreds this morning.
Mr Grollo made a brief statement before entering the talks.
"The illegal blockades at Grocon's sites must be lifted," he said.
Mr Oliver said he was willing to negotiate, but wanted unionists to retain their right to elect shop stewards and to fly union colours on Grocon sites.
"We hope that Daniel has turned up here this evening to negotiate, and not just because he was invited to by minister Bill Shorten," Mr Oliver said.
The Workplace Relations Minister said he wanted a negotiated outcome, but called on the CFMEU to obey court rulings.
"I have also condemned violence, thuggery and intimidation at work, whatever the industry," Mr Shorten said.
"People who break the law during a dispute will be brought to justice through the police and the courts."
CFMEU members ended a two-day blockade of a Grocon site in Sydney after a Supreme Court order banning it was served.
The Emporium dispute, which began last week, has cost Grocon $370,000 a day in lost construction.
Police closed Lonsdale St yesterday morning, and a small number of officers monitored the protest.
A union official urged about 1000 members to stand "shoulder to shoulder for 40 days or 400 days, for as long as it takes".
"The message to (Premier Ted) Baillieu in Spring St is, if he wants to bring in the coppers with their batons and their horses, then bring it on. Because there are 11,000 police and there are 30,000 members of the CFMEU and ... we're ready to rumble," he said.
"We're going to send a message - fly that flag, our colours, our patch - and send a message that in the end, we will not lose."
Brian Boyd, chairman of an alliance of building unions, said a statewide strike was possible if police tried to break the blockade.
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said yesterday: "What we are seeing in the streets of Melbourne is a sign of this Government's failure to ensure the rule of law applies on building sites."
- with Annika Smethurst, Stephen Drill and Michelle Ainsworth
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/grocon-workers-enter-emporium-site-as-cfmeu-dispute-continues/story-e6frf7kx-1226462011998
More: links .. please note also the article must have been being updated
while posting, it became impossible to continue adjusting it here.
========
Media coverage and comments i've seen have been overwhelmingly anti-union right wing noise .. this one for some balance ..
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Daniel Grollo's calling in mounted police with truncheons a return to Thatcherism
What have Australian workplaces become when an employer can ignore workplace bargaining and have power to set mounted police with truncheons and capsicum spray against peacefully protesting workers?
Baillieu sends in mounted police against picketing
construction workers yesterday
Who does third generation Daniel Grollo think he is? The Mafiosi Godfather? Who does Ted Baillieu think he is setting mounted police with truncheons against picketing workers?
National television footage from Melbourne yesterday showed Victoria's mounted police attacking construction workers at a Colonial First State's Myer Emporium high rise site in central Lonsdale Street. The protest was peaceful and was led by the relevant union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
Grollo loves money and hates unions, calling them ''scabs'' and ''grubs''. Grollo wants all his workers to be non-unionised. He won't let CFMEU shop stewards on any Grocon project. His hate is such that he won't even let workers put CFMEU stickers on their hard hats or lunch boxes.
Grollo has a history of trying to undermine construction workers' rights to enter into Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA's). He wants to scrap EBA's and install Howard's workchoice individual agreements, where Grollo has all say and the worker none. Grollo has barred unions from his construction sites. This is illegal. It is unAustralian. Grollo needs to realise he is not in Putin's Russia or Lukashenko's Belarus or in Thatcher's Britain.
And the LibLab Victorian Government is on the side of big multinationals like Grocon because all they see is the economic dollar. The LibLab Premier Ted Baillieu has done a little Johnny Howard Work Choice, recently passing anti-union legislation.
Setting mounted police against peacefully protecting workers is industrial thuggery. It is undemocratic and has no place in Australia. It is reminiscent of 1980's vicious Thatcherism. When then British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided to replace half the mining workforce with more efficient machines in coal mines across Northern England and Wales, the miners protested and picketed, supported by the National Union of Mineworkers.
Thatcher sent in the mounted police with truncheons against the miners. The miners had nowhere to go. It was their livelihood.
Thatcher sends in mounted police againts picketing miners in 1984
Australia has it's own union origins. The 1891 Shearers' Strike in Barcaldine was not fought in vain. If Daniel Grollo thinks he is another Charles Fairbain wanting to destroy unions, he has a problem.
The Australia First Party supports the rights of workers and their unions to demand fair enterprise agreements and recognises anyone's democractic right to protest peacefully.
Australian unionism is integral to Australia's identity and workplace freedoms. Australian workers must stand up against global multinationals like Grocon and safeguard the hard-fought workplace rights and conditions by our forebears. Unity in action is the first stage in winning political and organisational unity.
"We become slaves the moment we hand the keys to the definition of reality entirely over to someone else..."
- B.W. Powe, Towards A Canada Of Light.
http://afbluemountains.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/daniel-grollos-calling-in-mounted.html
You being an experienced protester against government/corporate abuse of union rights,
such as the right to vote for their own site safety officer rather than accepting a corporate
appointment to the position, i thought you might be interested .. will update the story here ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79115277 ..
Grocon workers 'enter Emporium site' as CFMEU dispute continues
Chris Gillett, Aleks Devic - Herald Sun - August 31, 2012 7:07AM
Police in riot gear assemble at the Emporium site as the industrial dispute enters its 10th day. Source: Herald Sun
UPDATE: SOME Grocon employees have been safely escorted into the $250 million
Emporium site in the CBD after hundreds of police secured the area this morning.
Grocon chief executive Daniel Grollo told 3AW that some employees had returned to the site this morning, but didn't say when or how many were there.
Victoria Police said workers were able to enter the site at about 7am.
Police said they would continue to have a presence at the site "to ensure the safety of all parties involved".
Hundreds of police blocked off Lonsdale St and secured the Grocon building site shortly after 3am, surrounding the inner-city block and redirecting traffic as about 1500 unionists gathered as the bitter industrial dispute enters its 10th day.
Unionists
Unionists chant during a speech outside the Emporium site.
The police airwing joined the mounted police, who were at the ready to try and break the picket line, which is in breach of a Supreme Court order.
At one point, workers walked into the middle of the road, blocking cars and public transport on Swanston St.
Unionists clashed with police when they tried to help Grocon workers enter the site on Tuesday.
Police on horseback stand defiant in the rain on day 10 of the picket line. Picture: Trevor Pinder
CFMEU state president Ralph Edwards told workers to stay strong after crisis talks between the union and Grocon failed last night.
"Don't be afraid to get on your phones and invite your friends," he said this morning.
"We are here to stay. We have laid seeds for this job. We are here to stay. We are not here to have a brawl.
Police in riot gear assemble at the Emporium site as the industrial dispute enters its 10th day.
"The folks (police) on the other side of the temporary fence are not here to stay.
"We have rights. We are going to defend our rights. We will have a point, I don't know when, where busses will be brought in.
"What we are going to do is continue to lay siege. We ain't going away, this is going to be a long fight."
"Say what you like to them but we are not going to have a brawl."
Workers protest again ahead of meeting [ embedded video: http://video.heraldsun.com.au/?2274175807 ]
"We are here to show we have strength."
Despite encouraging unionists to spread the word of the protests, Mr Edwards gagged the unionists from talking to the media.
He told the crowd that the media had misrepresented the union's cause and said nobody was doing themselves any favours by talking to journalists.
Earlier, Mr Edwards said that unionists were "not here to have a war" with officers.
CBD protesters doused with capsicum spray [ embedded video http://video.heraldsun.com.au/?2273246051 ]
"We are here because of Daniel Grollo. We are not dealing with a public listed company we are dealing with Daniel Grollo," he said.
"We are not here to have a blue with the police.
Vic police clash with building workers [ embedded video: http://video.heraldsun.com.au/?2273224954 ]
"We are not going to have a bloodbath.
"If you have come here to settle some argument with the police, I'll tell you now 'piss off'.
"We are here because the union has a job to do."
Drivers have been advised to look out for diversions along Lonsdale St, Swanston St and Little Bourke St.
Mr Grollo and CFMEU heavyweights Bill Oliver and John Setka were locked in talks at Fair Work Australia yesterday.
Mr Grollo said he could not abide by FWA president Iain Ross's recommendation of a two-week "cooling-off period", which would have seen the CFMEU suspend its industrial action while further talks continued.
"The proposal put to us today ... is totally unacceptable," Mr Grollo said.
"The concept that the illegal blockade and intimidation is only to be temporarily lifted is unacceptable."
Mr Oliver, CFMEU Victorian secretary, said he didn't understand why Mr Grollo had rejected the FWA's proposal, which also would have seen Grocon suspend its legal action against the union.
"Obviously there'll be people down there," Mr Oliver said yesterday.
"We were quite happy to go there tomorrow morning to tell those people ... go back to work and then see where we go for the next two weeks.
"(It's) disappointing from the union's point of view."
Mr Grollo said he had told the tribunal the company's position had not changed and that the company could only negotiate with the union if it lifted the blockade for good.
"I appeal to the CFMEU leadership to obey the law, remove the blockade and allow Grocon's workers to safely return to their jobs," Mr Grollo said.
The union blockade of Grocon's $250 million Emporium site is entering its tenth day, and workers are expected to return in their hundreds this morning.
Mr Grollo made a brief statement before entering the talks.
"The illegal blockades at Grocon's sites must be lifted," he said.
Mr Oliver said he was willing to negotiate, but wanted unionists to retain their right to elect shop stewards and to fly union colours on Grocon sites.
"We hope that Daniel has turned up here this evening to negotiate, and not just because he was invited to by minister Bill Shorten," Mr Oliver said.
The Workplace Relations Minister said he wanted a negotiated outcome, but called on the CFMEU to obey court rulings.
"I have also condemned violence, thuggery and intimidation at work, whatever the industry," Mr Shorten said.
"People who break the law during a dispute will be brought to justice through the police and the courts."
CFMEU members ended a two-day blockade of a Grocon site in Sydney after a Supreme Court order banning it was served.
The Emporium dispute, which began last week, has cost Grocon $370,000 a day in lost construction.
Police closed Lonsdale St yesterday morning, and a small number of officers monitored the protest.
A union official urged about 1000 members to stand "shoulder to shoulder for 40 days or 400 days, for as long as it takes".
"The message to (Premier Ted) Baillieu in Spring St is, if he wants to bring in the coppers with their batons and their horses, then bring it on. Because there are 11,000 police and there are 30,000 members of the CFMEU and ... we're ready to rumble," he said.
"We're going to send a message - fly that flag, our colours, our patch - and send a message that in the end, we will not lose."
Brian Boyd, chairman of an alliance of building unions, said a statewide strike was possible if police tried to break the blockade.
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said yesterday: "What we are seeing in the streets of Melbourne is a sign of this Government's failure to ensure the rule of law applies on building sites."
- with Annika Smethurst, Stephen Drill and Michelle Ainsworth
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/grocon-workers-enter-emporium-site-as-cfmeu-dispute-continues/story-e6frf7kx-1226462011998
More: links .. please note also the article must have been being updated
while posting, it became impossible to continue adjusting it here.
========
Media coverage and comments i've seen have been overwhelmingly anti-union right wing noise .. this one for some balance ..
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Daniel Grollo's calling in mounted police with truncheons a return to Thatcherism
What have Australian workplaces become when an employer can ignore workplace bargaining and have power to set mounted police with truncheons and capsicum spray against peacefully protesting workers?
Baillieu sends in mounted police against picketing
construction workers yesterday
Who does third generation Daniel Grollo think he is? The Mafiosi Godfather? Who does Ted Baillieu think he is setting mounted police with truncheons against picketing workers?
National television footage from Melbourne yesterday showed Victoria's mounted police attacking construction workers at a Colonial First State's Myer Emporium high rise site in central Lonsdale Street. The protest was peaceful and was led by the relevant union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
Grollo loves money and hates unions, calling them ''scabs'' and ''grubs''. Grollo wants all his workers to be non-unionised. He won't let CFMEU shop stewards on any Grocon project. His hate is such that he won't even let workers put CFMEU stickers on their hard hats or lunch boxes.
Grollo has a history of trying to undermine construction workers' rights to enter into Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA's). He wants to scrap EBA's and install Howard's workchoice individual agreements, where Grollo has all say and the worker none. Grollo has barred unions from his construction sites. This is illegal. It is unAustralian. Grollo needs to realise he is not in Putin's Russia or Lukashenko's Belarus or in Thatcher's Britain.
And the LibLab Victorian Government is on the side of big multinationals like Grocon because all they see is the economic dollar. The LibLab Premier Ted Baillieu has done a little Johnny Howard Work Choice, recently passing anti-union legislation.
Setting mounted police against peacefully protecting workers is industrial thuggery. It is undemocratic and has no place in Australia. It is reminiscent of 1980's vicious Thatcherism. When then British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided to replace half the mining workforce with more efficient machines in coal mines across Northern England and Wales, the miners protested and picketed, supported by the National Union of Mineworkers.
Thatcher sent in the mounted police with truncheons against the miners. The miners had nowhere to go. It was their livelihood.
Thatcher sends in mounted police againts picketing miners in 1984
Australia has it's own union origins. The 1891 Shearers' Strike in Barcaldine was not fought in vain. If Daniel Grollo thinks he is another Charles Fairbain wanting to destroy unions, he has a problem.
The Australia First Party supports the rights of workers and their unions to demand fair enterprise agreements and recognises anyone's democractic right to protest peacefully.
Australian unionism is integral to Australia's identity and workplace freedoms. Australian workers must stand up against global multinationals like Grocon and safeguard the hard-fought workplace rights and conditions by our forebears. Unity in action is the first stage in winning political and organisational unity.
"We become slaves the moment we hand the keys to the definition of reality entirely over to someone else..."
- B.W. Powe, Towards A Canada Of Light.
http://afbluemountains.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/daniel-grollos-calling-in-mounted.html
You being an experienced protester against government/corporate abuse of union rights,
such as the right to vote for their own site safety officer rather than accepting a corporate
appointment to the position, i thought you might be interested .. will update the story here ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79115277 ..
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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