Half the year has gone already which reinforces how busy we have all been. However, we have a very important event coming up later in the year that will shape our lives at least for the next few years. That, of course, is our EBA campaign.
  In the next couple of months we would like to think that we can sit down with the leaders of the industry on the employers’ side – major companies and subcontractors – and the outcomes will depend very much on you, the construction workers of Queensland.

For well over a decade now you guys together with your union have delivered superior outcomes to most other industries in Australia and we are all very proud of the fact. However, since Howard intruded into our lives a lot of those hard won conditions and outcomes that everyone signed off on have been conveniently forgotten or ignored and there are many workers right here today who are not receiving the negotiated outcomes of their EBAs.
 
This proves one thing: If we don’t stick together, particularly in our industry, regardless of what is written down paper, employers will ignore agreements if they are not being made to aim up to them.
 
People like to think that our industry has changed and it has changed in many ways but one thing that hasn’t changed is that employers will only go screaming and kicking to deliver anything worthwhile for you, the worker. How that comes about is through having a strong collective - which is your union working together on the jobs, standing side by side.
 
This might all sound like some well worn rhetoric but is as simple as that word “collective”. Without that we have nothing.
 You will get to the point where employers will sign documents but to them it won’t mean anything. So we need to remind ourselves that why we enjoy such a good life is because we are prepared to work hard and we receive a good result for it.
 
And I remind members of your industry schemes:

• Your superannuation scheme BUSS(Q) which will provide dignity in retirement;

• Your redundancy scheme BERT which provides for times when you are unemployed but also offers all those other ancillary benefits which we sometimes take for granted; and

• Your income protection scheme CIPQ. Never before have we been able to maintain our standard of living when we have been suffering from non-work-related illness or injury and since inception which has only been a few years we have paid out millions of dollars to building workers who would otherwise have had nothing but hardship and pain.
 
So those are the sorts of things of which we have to remind ourselves when we sit down to negotiate our next round of EBAs. They are the things that set your standards apart from others and we need to make sure that we protect them.
One of the more important aspects of our EBA is our RDOs.
We have set about putting them into a calendar where they are basically grouped up. It was for the benefit of the industry we did that so there was the least amount of disruption to the industry. However, there are now more sites working the RDOs than ever. I remind people, the RDO calendar which was negotiated and agreed upon is exactly that; it is for you to have time off doing what you want to do.
 
What is the use of having a calendar if no-one wants to stick to it?
 
The old saying: “Abuse it and you’ll lose it,” still applies. Not a truer word has been spoken particularly in regard to this calendar.
 
If you do nothing else, protect your RDO calendar.
 
The ABCC hasn’t disappeared. Howard has disappeared but his legacy to the employers lives on and is lurking in the shadows.

The building unions nationally are embarking on an awareness campaign on the unfairness of this shadowy group’s charter and how building workers are treated differently than other worker in Australia. We are determined to restore the rights of building workers to a level equal with all other Australian workers and we will not stop until that is achieved.
 
You will become involved in this campaign as it unfolds and we convince the Rudd Government that there is no place in our industry for failed coppers intent on sabotaging our hard won wages and conditions.
 
So if you are unfortunate enough to become involved with this shadowy mob the first thing you need to do is say nothing, get in touch with your union and then, together, we will address all the issues together as a collective.
 
It is pleasing to be able to report that membership is on the increase. This is very encouraging considering the activity we have but it is just as important that we go into our EBA campaign later in the year at full strength. The EBA will not be delivered by the executive, the organisers or the workers it will only be delivered by a team effort from the collective. 

Stay Collective. Stay Strong.