Green Bans: Campaigns to Protect the Environment

By the 1970s the importance of the environment was becoming clear to more and more people. To varying degrees the different building unions began to respond to the change in popular consciousness. The most far-reaching response was in NSW where the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) shot to both national and international prominence as a result of their green bans. These bans saved much of historic and natural Sydney, the most famous examples being at Kelly's Bush, the Rocks, Woolloomooloo, Victoria Street in Kings Cross and Centennial Park.

The leader of the BLF and pioneer of the green ban movement was Jack Mundey. In the following 1998 interview Mundey looks back at the movement's origins:

"I think the Green Bans were probably the most exciting innovation that the Builders Labourers became involved in. There was so much development taking place and at the outset there was this feeling that 'all development was good - it was progress'.

"But as historical buildings, and buildings worthy of preservation were knocked down, and whole neighbourhoods were disrupted - for example all the working class people in the Rocks were going to be thrown out for high-rise development - a segment of the population said 'well, we should be concerned about our vanishing heritage'.

"And those people had an impact on us, because the Builders Labourers had opened up to a lot of new ideas. And ironically it was a group of women from the fashionable suburb of Hunters Hill that first came to the union saying, 'we've seen where you've said unions should be concerned about things other than wages and conditions - well here's your chance to do something.' Because a developer, AV Jennings, was coming in to knock down the last remaining bushland on the Parramatta river, and build luxurious homes for the few.

"When the ban went on at Kelly's Bush it was called a 'black ban', and of course the conservatives went off their brains about it -'these are mere labourers! - who do they think they are? - urban town planners!!' and suchlike.

"The workers on an AV Jennings' site in North Sydney passed a resolution saying they'd ban any further building on that job if a tree or a blade of grass was touched at Kelly's Bush, which really set the cat amongst the pigeons.

"And with the success of Kelly's Bush it spread like wildfire. At the time there were Residents Action Groups all over Sydney opposing over-development… and we were then inundated with requests - Woolloomooloo, the Rocks, Victoria Street, Centennial Park. And in five years there were 43 green bans.

"They became 'green' because we felt it was more descriptive of what we were doing. It wasn't workers stopping the job to up their wages and conditions. They were saying we should have a social conscience and we should be concerned about community interests. Of course the union had to fight for wages and conditions, but we also felt it had a wider obligation of social responsibility.

"And moving from 'black' to 'green' it meant that we had a new constituency. People who were normally hostile to unions came on-side. It was a very positive example of union activism, but going beyond normal unionism."

The ban on this construction work led to more than 40 other bans worth more than $3000 million of 'development'.

Green bans on building and construction work also extended beyond Sydney.

In Melbourne, the Hamer Liberal government ran into serious opposition in September 1974 over its plan to construct a power station at Newport on the mouth of the Yarra River. The Building Workers Industrial Union, the Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union, the Plumbers' Union, the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen's Association, the Electrical Trades Union and the Furnishing Trades Union argued that the environmental damage was unacceptable and banned construction work.

In Adelaide, the SA Branch of the Plumbers and Gasfitters Union challenged the Mainline Corporation's proposal to demolish the 130-year-old Australian and New Zealand Bank and build a large office tower. That union also applied bans on other development projects in the suburbs of Unley, Highbury and Norwood.

In recent years the CFMEU has continued the use of green bans - at the Sydney Conservatorium, Finger Wharf, Erskineville and once again, Centennial Park.

United we bargain - Divided we beg.

Contact the National Office, Construction Division at:
Level 12, 276 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Ph: 02 8524 5800
Fax: 02 8524 5801
Email: queries@fed.cfmeu.asn.au

Postal address: PO Box Q235, Queen Victoria Building Post Office, Sydney NSW 1230.