October 28, 2024
MEU General President Tony Maher Opening Remarks at National Convention 28 October 2024.
Three and a half years ago I addressed the last National Convention of the CFMEU Mining and Energy Division. I outlined the case for taking a radical step to break away from a union that was turning on itself, turning on smaller divisions and turning into a rogue union.
I said ‘there is no longer any place for us’ in that union.
Our Convention delegates understood what had become painfully clear to those of us who participated in the structures of the amalgamated union. That is, that the path we were on would see us steamrolled into complying with the will of the Construction Division.
We put it to a vote and the proposal to break away and form our own union was carried unanimously. That was the single most important decision we’ve made in the four decades I’ve been a member.
While it took till 1 December 2023 to finally register the Mining and Energy Union, we really left on that day – 1 March 2021.
Look at us now. Here we are at the first National Convention of the MEU. We are back on the ACTU Executive, back with all the state and regional Labour Councils. The MEU is a respected brand in the Labour movement and if anything our political influence has grown.
Working positively with the ACTU team we have had an enormous number of wins from legislative changes. You’ll hear detailed reports through the week but let me mention a few of them.
- Mandatory conciliation in bargaining
- Access to arbitration in intractable disputes
- Multi-employer bargaining
- Delegates Rights
- 10 days paid Domestic Violence Leave
- Same Job Same Pay
- Employers being unable to now unilaterally terminate enterprise agreements during bargaining, which was a powerful tool used by the employers in bargaining to send workers back to the Award.
- Fixing up the Coal LSL scheme so that the hours worked by casuals properly and fairly count towards their accrual.
More than at any time in the past 30 years, workers can see that the union can achieve change, that delegates have rights, that the system is no longer skewed against them. We have gained important tools to achieve better outcomes and it’s up to us to use them. Recent growth in membership numbers suggest that a lot of workers are getting off the fence and joining.
For workers in the coal fired power sector there is now an independent statutory authority enshrined in law to oversee the redeployment of workers at power station, dependant mines and contractors. It will also coordinate the diversification of affected regions. The establishment of the Net Zero Economy Authority is the culmination of a campaign we’ve run for the last two decades.
It was our long running campaign that put Same Job Same Pay on the political map.
We spent much of the 2010s fighting for justice in the courts, including knocking off many dodgy labour hire agreements and of course our landmark Federal Court wins against Workpac.
Despite our significant progress in the courts, the Morrison LNP Government with One Nation support simply changed the rules to suit business.
It was clear we needed new laws and a good Labor Government to introduce them. In 2018 we began to publicly campaign for Same Job Same Pay laws and in various waves of campaigning committed over $2 million to winning the argument for new laws, against the deep pockets of the mining lobby.
This included working with the McKell Institute on a landmark report highlighting the loss of billions of dollars from coalfields regions.
When launching that report in Mackay in 2020, then Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese told our delegates: “Same Job Same Pay – it’s a pretty simple principle and it has to be at the heart of the response to this report. It’s a principle we’ll implement in government.”
Because of the long campaign of our union, and a good Government who has listened to our concerns and backed us in, pay rises will start rolling in for hundreds of labour hire mineworkers this Friday, with thousands more in the pipeline.
Since Convention last met, we’ve lost some giants of our Union and our movement. I won’t name them all now but I do want to mention those that were most significant to me.
Fred Moore, Tom McDonald, Stan Sharkey and Vic Fitzgerald all died after living long and full lives. Fred never stood for full time union positions but was the wisest and most influential unionist in the miners union for decades. Tom McDonald is rightly hailed as the father of industry superannuation and was a mentor to many including Sally McManus and myself. A champion boxer, the pugnacious Stan Sharkey spent his career fighting for justice and confronting corruption. Vic was a Balmain boy when it was at it’s toughest. An incorruptible leader who found the balance between militancy and maintaining relationships with employers if it would benefit workers.
We’ve got tremendous challenges in front of us. We deal with some of the biggest corporations on the planet and those of you here who sit across from them at the bargaining table know how ruthless they can be.
Heading towards another federal election, the Minerals Council has predictably fired up again, hoping that the failed campaign against Same Job Same Pay at the last election works this time. They have Peter Dutton and Michaelia Cash on their side. Dutton has promised the mining companies that they will reverse Labor’s IR changes that are just beginning to deliver outcomes for workers.
I’m not prone to melodrama, but to lose the important gains we’ve made before they’re properly bedded down would be a disaster. We are committed to making sure it doesn’t happen.
I’m incredibly proud of this union. We are strong, we are united, we are effective and we are growing. Our membership has grown by more than 3000 members since our last National Convention.
I want to acknowledge the effort across the Union to achieve this growth in often difficult circumstances. A particular achievement is our growing presence in the Pilbara, steadily returning a workers’ voice to the industry in the face of decades of anti-union hostility from employers.
Everyone at this Convention is here for the best of reasons. To help union members. To be smart about how we do that. To work collaboratively with others to achieve that. To offer solidarity to others in need. That’s the union culture we’ve built.
I look forward to discussions in coming days so that we can collectively plan the next steps to build on the extraordinary progress made in the last three and a half years.