Unity is Strength: struggles and Victories to Current Times

• Worker employer relations move to the Courts
  
• Government strengthens Court's penal powers
  
• Post-war building and changing work conditions
  
• 1990s: from enterprise to pattern bargaining

Admission to the early building unions was strict. You had to be nominated by other members who had observed your work and could vouch for your skill. The union's role was to guard the customs of each trade.

Trade customs and working conditions were set out in rule books and members who worked on lesser terms were fined. In return for weekly membership fees, the union provided benefits such as strike relief, compensation for loss of tools, sickness and funeral assistance. With no government social welfare at the time, these benefits provided insurance for building workers and an incentive to join the union.

Much of the union's activity was carried out by voluntary officials, elected for short periods by their fellow workers.

One of the earliest recorded victories for Australian building unions was the Stonemasons' campaign for an 8-hour day in the mid 1850s. Firstly on two sites in Sydney, and then right across Melbourne, stonemasons struck and won the 8 hour day (48 hour week) This victory is widely regarded as a world-first.

In Queensland, a building worker who nicknamed himself 'Yacca' wrote a series of letters to the Moreton Bay Courier, between Nov 1, 1856 and August 22, 1857, calling for the introduction of an eight-hour day in that State. Yacca's letters obviously drew quite a deal of support from building workers because the following advertisement appeared in The Moreton Bay Courier in August 1857:

A meeting of the working men of Brisbane and its vicinity connected with the building trade (not being employers)... on the evening of Wednesday the 9th of September to take into consideration the adoption of the short time movement.

Other early achievements were:

• 1875-1920: 44 hour week
• 1897: first Workers' Compensation legislation in Australia
• 1902 - 1980s: Campaigns for proper amenities on construction sites.
• 1902: the first building industry safety legislation in the NSW Scaffolding & Lifts Act.
• 1904: penalty rates for overtime.
• 1904: waiting time for late payment of wages.
• 1904: fares and travelling allowance.

The early 20th century also saw the first full-time paid union officials. Outstanding amongst these was the leader of the Bricklayers Union, Jack Kilburn. From fighting conscription in the 1910s, leading the 44 hour week campaign in the 1920s, fighting fascism and becoming a Labor member of parliament in the 1930s, and helping form the Building Workers Industrial Union in the 1940s, Kilburn was a giant of both the industrial and political wings of the labour movement.

Worker employer relations move to the Courts

The introduction of Compulsory Arbitration Legislation in 1904 changed the way unions worked. Previously, union meetings fixed the union wage rate and workers and union officials campaigned directly with employers to achieve it. The introduction of arbitration saw wages and conditions being fixed by Court hearings. Besides bargaining directly, employers and unions spent much time arguing their cases before the Court - just as they do before the Industrial Relations Commission today.
This resulted in some gains for workers. For example, the 1907 Harvester case, in which building unions participated, established the notion of 'a fair and reasonable' basic wage - what is called a 'living wage' today, as it was also called back then.

The Court systems also contributed to the creation of industry standards, where benefits from particular awards could be more easily flowed on to other sectors of the industry.
However, the Arbitration Court was established with the aim of reducing strike action and was widely perceived to be an employers' Court.

The Archer Award, made in 1913, was the first federal building industry award and applied to builders labourers in NSW, Vic, Qld, SA and Tas. It established a number of important conditions, including:

• Recognition that a higher rate should be paid to casuals.
  
• Introduction of a lost time loading for time lost due to wet weather, waiting between jobs, waiting for materials and sick leave
  
• Standard hours of 44 a week.

When the Progressive Society of Carpenters and Joiners and the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners amalgamated federally in 1920, the new union, the ASC&J of Australasia, applied for award coverage in Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia. After two years negotiation, the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration registered the Anthony Award - the first federal award to cover the work of carpenters and joiners.

Government strengthens Court's penal powers

It was not long before a Conservative Government amended the legislation to give the Court strong penal powers. As a result, striking unionists in 1928 ended up in jail and their organisations were fined large sums of money for 'inciting strike action'. The Court could also introduce new awards which took away conditions previously won by the workers.

In 1929, Judge Luken announced a new award for timber workers which took away the 44-hour week, reduced wages and generally worsened working conditions. When timber workers came out on strike in response to the award, their organisers were fined $1000 each or, in default, sent to jail for three months.

During the 1930s recession, the Arbitration Court nakedly served both employer and government interests by slashing basic wages.
Employer associations also used the Court to directly attack unions by applying for their deregistration. In 1948 the Federal Office and Victorian branch of the BWIU were de-registered and remained outside the system for a period lasting for 14 years. The Court's decision was in response to a campaign of industrial action being taken by the union in support of parity wage rates for on and off-site timber workers. But it also reflected the conservative, and explicitly anti-communist, bias of the courts. Not long afterwards, the Court endorsed the formation of a new building union, which took the name of the former Amalgamated Society of Carpenters & Joiners. The new ASC&J was supported by the employers and strongly associated with the Catholic right wing organisation, known as the 'Movement' - see the CFMEU a progressive 'left' union.

Post-war building and changing work conditions

Many conditions taken for granted today were not enjoyed by building workers until World War II. These included annual leave, decent amenities (on some jobs), wet weather payment, even the humble 'smoko' break… It's an interesting indicator on how tough workers had it in the early days - conditions actually improved during wartime. In the years following the war, many ex-soldiers effectively became adult apprentices under the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Training Scheme. Heavily influential was union president and First World War veteran Ted Bulmer, who understood the difficulties returned service people faced.
And despite significant attacks by employers on building unions, workers continued to make significant gains in this period. Major campaigns were waged to achieve compensation for lost time due to wet weather, increased travel allowances and payment for exceptionally dirty conditions.

By the end of 1946, the Victorian Building Trades Federation had secured employers' agreement to a 8-hour a week wet weather allowance, after a campaign of lightning stoppages and go-slows. If it rained during any one week, workers would be paid up for lost time up to a limit of 8 hours.
The wet weather deal was matched with increases in basic wages and a new standard of travel allowance that subsequently flowed on to other States.

Safety became an issue of greater concern. And as the height of dams and commercial buildings soared, workers also demanded compensation for the greater risks involved.

Because of the limits of fire ladders and steam-pumped water pressure, the height of buildings in Sydney were restricted to 150 feet until 1957. The lifting of those restrictions signalled the beginning of the modern multi-storey era. With hundreds of workers concentrated on multi-storey jobs, the whole nature of the industry changed.

Building workers also fought to secure conditions, such as the right to long service leave, which was available to other workers.

The first long service breakthrough was in Tasmania in 1951, where the government introduced legislation setting up a fund and requiring employers to make payments into it upon termination of a building worker's employment. The SA Government was next, followed by the Victorian and NSW Governments. Building workers in all States were eligible for Long Service Leave benefits by 1974.

In 1960 full daylight training for apprentices was finally achieved after a campaign lasting 20 years. Apprentices had previously to undertake technical studies in the evenings after working on site all day.

Perhaps the most significant struggle of the 1970s was the achievement of full pay for lost time due to injury, as a result of the Accident Pay Dispute in NSW.
Up to that point building workers who sustained injuries at work were only received a percentage of their pay. The joint campaign by building unions was one of the most effective industrial actions of the period and ranks with the achievement of the 8-hour day as a significant breakthrough for the industry.

From 1971-1974, as environmental issues and the preservation of historic buildings were becoming of greater concern to the community, the NSW Builders' Labourers Federation lead the drive for 'Green Bans' by construction workers on heritage sites. Significant areas of Sydney such as the famous Rocks District were preserved as a result. Actions were also taken up in varying degrees in other States. Bans campaigns also saved from demolition many Melbourne landmarks including the Queen Victoria Market ,the Regent Theatre and the City Baths.

Campaigns by five building unions, led by the BWIU, also resulted in the achievement of a National Building and Construction Award in March 1975. This replaced 30 State Awards, and consolidated many of the gains in wages, working conditions and social demands that had been won as a result of workers' struggles in the various States.

Indeed a deep rivalry developed between the BWIU and the BLF over who could make the greater advances. Sadly, the relationship was to deteriorate in the years ahead, through to the BLF's deregistration, federally and in Victoria, NSW and ACT, in 1986. Fortunately, in recent years those divisions have been overcome.

Other significant wins by building workers during the 1980s and 1990s include:

• an Industry Superannuation Scheme (1984);
• Redundancy Pay as an Award right (1989)
• National Redundancy Scheme (1995)
• Training levy in WA (1995) and Qld (1999) the collection system is different in each State but the outcome in both is a dedicated Training Fund to ensure skill development for the workforce.

The WA CFMEU was at the forefront of the union campaign against the draconian 'third wave' industrial relations legislation introduced by the Court State Government and IR Minister Kierath. Solidarity Park was built in 1997, during this campaign, when a Workers Embassy was established on a strip of vacant land opposite Parliament House in Perth. After the protest ended, the trade union movement left behind a beautiful park with permanent shelters, barbeques and monuments dedicated to Mark Allen and all workers who have died as a result of their work. (Mark Allen was a young BLPPU Organising Works organiser who was killed on a building site attempting to get workers off an unsafe roof.)

Solidarity Park is now used by a large range of community groups and has become a permanent feature of the West Perth landscape.

• Portable Sick Leave in Victoria (1997). Untaken sick leave is credited to the Portable Scheme on termination and may be used by the worker in his/her next job.
• The 36-hour week for all construction projects in Victoria (2000).

1990s: from enterprise to pattern bargaining

Changes in Australian industrial relations over the past 15 years, with the switch to 'enterprise bargaining' and Liberal Government attacks on Award conditions won over the years, have placed further demands on trade unions. The CFMEU challenged the ACTU-ALP enterprise bargaining strategy with the alternative, industry-wide collective bargaining approach, as far back as 1993.
That thinking has formed the basis for the union's successful industry-wide approach to wage agreements - known as pattern bargaining .
Industry-level collective bargaining was formally endorsed by the ACTU in 1997 and has now been adopted by other left- and right-wing unions.

Everything building workers have won has had to be fought for, and always in the face of opposition from big business, the press and conservative politicians. Inch by inch, the wages and conditions building workers enjoy today have been won. And because building unions have played such a pioneering role, their efforts have benefited not only themselves but all Australian workers.

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.