Ever wondered what your union fees pay for?

Trippy

Trippy

I almost lost my breakfast reading this:

Officials from Australia?s powerful building unions are being bribed by corrupt companies that need their support to win multimillion-dollar contracts.

The construction industry rackets involve labour hire, traffic management, scaffolding, crane and building companies, several of which are connected to bikies and organised crime figures.

An investigation by Fairfax Media and the ABC?s 7.30 program has identified several influential Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union officials, organisers and shop stewards in NSW and Victoria who have been given bribes and other inducements by the companies.

Bribery and dirty deals are rife in the building industry. Here is how it works.

The union figures in return use their influence to ensure the companies get the CFMEU?s backing, including specific enterprise bargaining agreements, to win contracts on parts of big private and government projects, among them Victoria?s desalination plant and Sydney?s Barangaroo development.
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/brib...ng-industry-20140127-31j0a.html#ixzz2rdR3iT4B

You can see why union staffed contracts run at 30% more cost than non-union sites....:mad:
 
Like a lot of things in life; the individuals eventually start to think they are bigger than the game they are in, and can forget who butters their bread.

The problem with Unions (other than corrupt officials - of which there are no doubt zillions) is they end up losing sight of what is good for everyone.

They tend to always want, want, want for the employee - and that is good - but it's not much good if they push and push and push to the point where the Company takes the bat and ball and moves to India, or culls half their staff, etc.

And, the employees often pay lots of fees collectively to the Union and not a lot of value comes back from those fees....
 
Lol this is news?

When I was in the building game a lot of the big contractors on the big sites in Sydney had "EBA's". They had 150 employee's, 50 or so were on the books and over 100 cash in hand. The union knows all about it but does nothing because at least they are still getting a cut from the operator. In other words only EBA companies can get the work on the big sites (Multiplex, Lend Lease, Leightons, that kind of thing) but those companies are more crook than the ones that don't have it because the only way they can do the work for that price is to pay off the union and pay the workers cash.

Huge rort.
 
ok180 said:
Lol this is news?

When I was in the building game a lot of the big contractors on the big sites in Sydney had "EBA's". They had 150 employee's, 50 or so were on the books and over 100 cash in hand. The union knows all about it but does nothing because at least they are still getting a cut from the operator. In other words only EBA companies can get the work on the big sites (Multiplex, Lend Lease, Leightons, that kind of thing) but those companies are more crook than the ones that don't have it because the only way they can do the work for that price is to pay off the union and pay the workers cash.

Huge rort.
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Ah, yes; and everyone blames us greedy investors for the exorbitant cost of building a house/building, or buying a home these days....:rolleyes:
 
My brother in law in Melbourne works on large construction sites and claims to have seen wads of money changing hands in brown bags, with union officials involved.

Not sure whether he's for real, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.
 
BayView said:
Ah, yes; and everyone blames us greedy investors for the exorbitant cost of building a house/building, or buying a home these days....:rolleyes:
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It's kind of a double edge sword.

No doubt the unions have pushed the cost of labour up extremely high but if they cracked down on the cash in hand thing the costs would be a lot higher again than what they are now.

I used to think sometimes they government knows about it but doesn't do anything because they are scared of what it will do to building costs. So every now and then they hit someone hard to make an example of them but to show they are doing something but by and large there are a lot of rorts going on.
 
tobe said:
we should get rid of unions.
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Agree completely to this part..

tobe said:
weekends and safe workplaces are completely overated.
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If you saying you need a union for this you are mistaken, I get weekends off and work in a safe environment without union intervention. You may then say "well you wouldn't have these benefit's without the unions". Maybe, maybe not. The point is we collectively now work under accepted work place practices, for instance - set work hours per week; overtime; paid holiday; sick leave...These are all covered under Awards. Time for the unions to pack up and ..ss off....;)

Sorry boys but we don't need you anymore...:D
 
Rixter said:
Who will keep the employers honest in relation to the industrial workplace practices act?

Its a kin to putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank!
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The governement can (and does) do that. You don't need a pack of thugs in jeans wandering around taking bribes to sort our crook bosses.
 
Rixter said:
Who will keep the employers honest in relation to the industrial workplace practices act?

Its a kin to putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank!
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Well no it isn't.

You have FWA, Workcover and Safework all overseeing the industrial workplace practices.

All favour the employee.

There is also a FW ombudsman and industrial lawyers one can tap into.

It's all highly regulated just as the Tenancies Act is.

Government bodies that oversee awards and conditions as well as safety have existed for decades.
 
weg said:
Well no it isn't.

You have FWA, Workcover and Safework all overseeing the industrial workplace practices.

All favour the employee.

There is also a FW ombudsman and industrial lawyers one can tap into.

It's all highly regulated just as the Tenancies Act is.

Government bodies that oversee awards and conditions as well as safety have existed for decades.
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Were Unions around before FWA, Workcover and Safework?
 
Rixter said:
Were Unions around before FWA, Workcover and Safework?
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Not sure when these other departments were first created - or in what form.

These other bodies (operated under different names years ago) have been around for decades and operate within the same framework as other govenment organizations, in regards to operation, accountability and transparency, unlike unions which operate much like criminal organizations.

We have no need for them as they stand. Their function now appears more for their own gain and that of the Labor Party (power and money), than for the workers.
 
Rixter said:
Does that make them ALL the same?
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Let me put it this way. As an entity, it is corrupt, full of hacks. There were some officials in there who I felt were decent and had the interest of the workers at heart but the vast majority are just working for the machine portraying themselves as warriors for the common man - Bull$hit.

They pray on the most lowly ignorant workers who do not know any better. In return for their membership they supposedly are protecting from crook, nasty bosses!!!

Now here is the rub, the unions look after the crook, nasty bosses provided they too are happy to line the pockets of the heirachy in the unions. The average workers have no idea about what goes on. The union shakes the tree from time to time, publishes some mumbo jumbo in their quarterly publication about what good they have done and the game goes on.

Like I said, there are companies out there in the building game in Sydney with EBA's (union agreements) that have half their workforce on cash in hand payments. The union knows this but they let them do it because they are still getting fee's from a good chunk of members in that company. They would rather let a dodgy company with an EBA have a large project than a company doing the right thing but doesn't have an EBA.
 
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