By Tim Jarvis - Gold Coast Organiser
I am currently dealing with concerned workers at Robina Town Centre regarding the swipe card situation. Union action is being taken in both Queensland and Victoria where the CFMEU have found themselves in a similar position.
As I mentioned in my previous article, the swipe card situation on the Coast and in Victoria is becoming out of hand. Workers don’t want these swipe cards to hold too much information. Not only do they hold personal information about each worker but they have the potential to pin point the workers location on site.
For instance if you are working on level 3 and are found on level 2, the boss is able to view your swipe card information and ask why you weren’t in your designated section. What’s next tracking devices under our skin?
A Solidarity action is being taken on the Bovis Lend Lease site at Robina Town Centre in protest of the system. We are also in close contact with the Victorian branch of the CFMEU who have been experiencing the same issues with the swipe cards. If we all campaign together we can beat this outrageous monitoring system.
Hopefully we can take all the information off the cards, so they won’t be used as a Bundy clock. By the men standing together and refusing to use them we can abolish this system. Workers should not be treated like live stock pushed through a gate.
On the work side of things, the Gold Coast is simmering down just before the Indy blastoff this October. The outlook for the Gold Coast construction looks promising. I think in 10 years time the Gold Coast will still be developing at a rapid rate. Obviously the Broadwater will have a lot of development over the next few years, and the Coast will continue to consistently be developed, eventually meeting Brisbane with industrial estates.
There has been a slight lull in construction work at the moment on the Gold Coast. It seems to go in cycles slowing down one moment and then speeding up the next.
Work site safety is also another matter of concern for workers and there have been a few accidents on the Coast relating to form work and scaffolding.
Robina Town Centre recently had a form work deck collapse while the concrete was being poured, luckily no one was injured. I think the workers were being pushed and usually that’s how accidents happen.
In addition a scaffolding incident occurred last week leaving a worker with shoulder injuries. On the “Allisee” job scaffolders were stripping the scaffold and through a simple lack of communication, the ledger scaffold component fell about 4 floors. The scaffold hit another scaffolder working from the bottom. Luckily he survived but he did sustain some shoulder injuries.
This is a perfect example of how important the exclusion zones on site really are. Without one on site this accident could have potentially injured more people.
In other news, union organisers have been visiting work sites on the Gold Coast with a petition campaign to abolish the ABCC for good. We’ve been holding early on site meetings on the Gold Coast to make workers aware of what’s going on. Its obvious to me that construction workers have had enough, let’s hope that the rest of the country takes notice and we can get rid of these laws for good.
In closing, I would like to make mention of Bob Carnegie, a man who was been nothing short of an inspiration to me. As the previous union organiser here on the Gold Coast, Bob has been my mentor as an organiser.
I have only ever witnessed him helping other people and it has been an honour to work by his side. I’m sure there will be history books written about him. Bob lives on and will continue to live on as a fine trade unionist like his father Lenny (aka ‘Fuckem,’) whose saying I’ll never forget: “Your head ain’t made just for nodding.” I wish Bob all the best for the future.
Stay collective, stay strong.
