The Fight for Safe Working Conditions in Construction

The skyline of every major Australian city is now dominated by huge skyscrapers. Yet what most people don't realise is that many of those skyscrapers are literally tombstones that have cost the lives of hundreds of building workers over the years. In the construction industry workplace safety is literally a life and death question.

As a simple illustration, the builders labourers union pointed out in 1973 that 43 builders labourers were killed at work in the previous 12 months in NSW. That was the same as the annual average of Australians killed in the Vietnam war.

Yet unfortunately most improvements in building site safety have been won against the strenuous opposition of employers. For example when the dangerous practice of 'overhand brickwork' was banned by bricklayers, a representative of Meriton's building company said 'if pickets were put on the job he would run them over with a truck.' Even the introduction of compulsory safety helmets in the 1950s was opposed by employers.

Governments as well have very patchy records. Building unions first called for the appointment of a scaffolding inspector in Sydney in 1886 following a series of accidents. But it took the government a further six years, and many more accidents, before they got round to appointing one.

And it's not just accidents that kill and injure building workers - there are the insidious slow killers. In the 1920s an average of 29 painters a year were dying in Australia of lead poisoning. It took until 1956, when the Queensland Government introduced legislation, for governments nationally to be convinced of the dangers of lead in paints.

Likewise years later with asbestos. (And because of its long incubation period, the terrible toll of that particular substance still remains to be seen). Once again, things like lead in paint and asbestos were only banned because of union campaigning.

The CFMEU makes no apology for its rigorous attitude towards safety. We've been to too many funerals.

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.