Winter Issue 2009 - cfmeu

More documents

Recommendations

Info

S A F E T Y N E W S with Mick Buchan John Holland admits poor safety record INTERNAL HOLLAND MEMO CONFIRMS WHAT THE CFMEU HAS BEEN SAYING ALL ALONG 34 year old Mark McCallum was killed at Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal in May 2007. A 45 rigger was killed in Newman on March 19. His name was Wayne Moore. Both were employed by John Holland. In an absolutely astonishing admission, an internal John Holland memo from their Structural Mechanical Process GM, Brendan Petersen, admits that the current state of their safety performance is ‘unsatisfactory’ and ‘unacceptable’. It goes on to say: “We have a safety objective of No Harm, however in the last twelve months there have been 81 serious injuries to our employees and subcontractors and we have had 51 occasions where incidents have occurred with high potential for injury.” BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE… “We also have sites that consistently allow work activities to be undertaken in an uncontrolled or unsafe manner, sites that don’t take employee concerns about unsafe workplace conditions seriously and sites that don’t report near misses so as to learn from them and ensure the situations never re-occur again” HOLLAND KEEPS CFMEU OUT OF ROLE TO IMPROVE SAFETY As a result of having such a poor safety record, Holland’s have embarked on a process to try and improve their on-site safety procedures. However there will be no role for unions such as ours to play. John Holland and their associated companies such as Leighton’s have a history of making it hard for unions to have access to their sites to review and audit safety procedures. They won’t talk or tap into our vast knowledge base and experience about workplace safety – this ignorant attitude is costing lives. The sooner companies like Holland’s understand that union sites are safer sites the better off their workers will be. We also have to question their observation that accidents and near misses go unreported. We have reason to believe that many workers on anti-union sites are afraid to speak up about un-safe work procedures and poor safety standards for fear of getting sacked or even blacklisted. COMCARE NOT UP TO POLICING SAFETY John Holland was the first and only construction contractor to opt out of State Workers Compensation when the Howard Government expanded access to the Comcare Scheme. The CFMEU objected strongly to this because our view is that Comcare doesn’t have enough resources to police the dangerous construction industry and our concern about benefits. LIVES WORTH FIGHTING FOR… It’s no secret that we have had our run-ins with John Holland and their associated companies over the years – but we make no apology for placing the lives and well being of workers ahead of any action their bosses might choose to take. Report unsafe worksites – your life depends on it: Call the union office on 92211055 or call your Organiser. Construction Worker – Winter 2009 Page 17 CFMEU
C I T Y R O U N D U P with Mick Buchan and Matt Waters Recession news not all bad in the City Considering they are saying it’s the worst economic crisis we have seen in the past 70 years there’s still plenty happening in the city. While jobs such as Century City, Arccon Murray Street and the two apartment blocks Skye and the Rise for Diploma are starting to wind up, there is a few more just kicking off. Diploma has just started the Zenith Project with AT Concrete looking after the structure. Will & Dom are down there with the crew from Rise and are looking forward to building the job which consists of a 24 storey apartment complex featuring Perth’s first car stacker. The C-Bus 140 William Street and Raine Square sites are moving on with around 12 months until practical completion. There are a few more jobs just kicking off around town such as Emco Bennett Street with the crews of Cowan and Hamilton Formwork and Presidential Steel Fixing. Psaros have started a little job next to union office and Vibapile have started piling on Broads Elder Street car park with Westcoast Formwork. industry at the moment. I mean this time last year employer’s were hiring a plenty and now the pencil is being sharpened across the board. If you bring up a safety issue you’re labelled a trouble maker. It’s vitally important that you go home at the end of each day the same way you got there in the morning, ALIVE! Volunteer fire fighters boots donation. Rock Solid Concrete Cutting and Presidential Steelfixing raised the $1600 required to purchase the fire fighting boots required by Jason and his crew of volunteer fire fighters. It’s surprising to think that volunteers have to supply their own boots. Paramount Scaffolding on the old heritage Wellington building C-Bus, 140 William Street site. AT Concreters on the Zenith Apartments, 101 Murray Street site, pouring the 1500 cubic meters raft slab Next door Inner-city building are coming out the ground and moving forward to erecting tower crane Number 3. The crews from Advanced Formwork, Wunderbar and Westcrete are down there with Barrett and Lukey looking after the boys. As difficult as it is with those Wright brothers!!! Westralia Square is full steam ahead with the jump form completed 6 levels and 4 completed levels of floor space. The crews from Form700, CASC and New Wave Concrete will be busy for some time considering it’s a 52 storey job. Emco Crew on Bennett Street – Safer worksites not grave sites. It’s too early to quote starting dates but Fraser’s property will be building a 20 storey hotel and car park on the old Perth bus depot next to the East Perth lock up. And it looks promising that Australand will finalise 2 residential towers on Wellington Street, East Perth. Just to finish up we would like to reiterate the fact that safety is paramount, with the climate of the Anchor crew feature formwork at Central TAFE Northbridge “where’s Robin” There are far too many serious injuries and fatalities within our industry at the moment. Look after yourself and your work mates. Don’t be the one to say “If only”! If you have an issue and no one is listening contact us by phone, text us, call the union office but don’t do anything. We will turn up! Remember SAFETY before PROFITS! Report unsafe sites and work practices to: Matt Waters 0419 812 875 or Mick Buchan 0419 812 861 Construction Worker – Winter 2009 Page 19 CFMEU
Page 1 and 2: INSIDE: May Day souvenir lift-out p
Page 3 and 4: S E C R E TA R Y ’ S A D D R E S
Page 5 and 6: D AY O F M O U R N I N G R A L LY B
Page 7 and 8: U N I O N N E W S with Kevin Reynol
Page 9 and 10: A C T U C O N G R E S S with Kevin
Page 11: continued from previous page OHS pr
Page 15 and 16: L E G A L M AT T E R S with Matthew
Page 17 and 18: O F F C U T S with Joe McDonald Kee
Page 19 and 20: Pyramid Constructions. “Even the
Page 21 and 22: MayDay’09
Page 23 and 24: TA K I N G A C T I O N with Joe McD
Page 25 and 26: T H E S O U T H W E S T R E P O R T
Page 27 and 28: W O R K E R S R I G H T S with Jack
Page 29 and 30: U N I O N B E N E F I T S YOUR REDU
Page 31 and 32: W H E R E A R E T H E Y N O W ? wit
Page 33 and 34: M E M B E R ’ S M E E T I N G S w
Page 35 and 36: U N I O N B E N E F I T S with Rod
Page 37 and 38: I N T E R N AT I O N A L N E W S wi

Winter Issue 2009 - cfmeu

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?