The CFMMEU’s manufacturing arm has lost its bid to break away from the organisation after a battle with the union’s powerful construction division before the nation’s workplace umpire.
Manufacturing division secretary Michael O’Connor applied to the Fair Work Commission last year to demerge from the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union to end years of acrimony with the construction arm, headed by outgoing secretary Dave Noonan.
CFMMEU manufacturing arm Michael O’Connor has lost a bid to split from the broader union. Credit:Bradley Kanaris
On Friday, the commission decided against O’Connor, who had argued the CFMMEU’s manufacturing arm was created by its 2018 merger with the Maritime Union of Australia, which would have given his division the ability to vote on withdrawing from the organisation within a five-year period.
The commission found that although the manufacturing arm was modified and renamed as a result of the amalgamation, it had already existed as part of the broader union.
“We’re disappointed with the decision. We know that we have a number of legal avenues we’re still to be able to pursue, and we are determined more than ever to try and make sure that our members get the democratic right to decide whether they want to leave or stay with the CFMMEU,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor previously told this masthead the manufacturing division had “been the victims of a whole range of attacks by the construction division” and there had been “no attempt to resolve continuous attacks and sniping by construction”.
Noonan, who previously accused O’Connor of revealing his intention to split publicly before notifying the union, on Friday urged the manufacturing arm’s leadership to “put the interests of their members ahead of individual egos”.
He said the manufacturing division had pursued a “strange” argument in its application to demerge, which it did not have much hope of winning.
“Our view would be it might be time to stop throwing good members’ money at bad arguments and get on to working with the rest of the union to service members,” Noonan said.
The mining division is also applying to the industrial umpire to break away from the CFMMEU.
The Federal Court earlier last year ordered the Victorian construction division, helmed by controversial union figure John Setka, to hand back more than 300 members to the manufacturing division after determining they had been poached.
Setka had been previously ordered by the court to cease and desist from “inducing, encouraging or advising” members of the manufacturing division to switch sides.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.
Most Viewed in Politics
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article