Recently Thousands of unionists rallied against the Australian Building Construction Commission (ABCC) due to ‘unfair’ charges laid against CFMEU official Noel Washington. For those of you who haven’t heard the full story, Noel Washington is being charged with refusing to attend a compulsory interview with the ABCC to answer any questions about an off site union meeting at a Bovis Lend Lease job in 2007.

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Noel Washington’s refusal to attend the interview has resulted in numerous court hearings and charges for him to serve jail time for not co-operating. “The ABCC are the biggest bullies I’ve ever dealt with, the laws they have at their disposal have no place in a so call democratic society like Australia, and they use these laws freely to go after ordinary workers,” said Noel.

The rally in protest against the ABCC was held on the 12^th of September and unionists nation wide gathered in support for the abomination of these mistreated and unfair laws. Not only has Noel Washington dealt with the ABCC about these types of issues but also workers across Australia are being questioned, followed and harassed by the ‘watch dog’.

“Quite Clearly the government has to look at these laws as they do discriminate against construction workers, and they have to go,” said Noel.

“I’m not going to talk about what happened at a union meeting. I’m not going to give up workers, our members or any official of the union.”

Friday 31^st of October Noel attended a court hearing and he will face a contest mention on the 2^nd of December, we will keep you updated with any new news about his case and results.

““The last thing I want to do is go to jail,” says Noel. “But there are bigger things at stake here. Workers’ rights for one. And in the building industry, we don’t have them.”

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