Our Strength Lies With Our Members

As the new year starts and work on construction sites escalates it is timely to remind members of the key and important role they play in ensuring safety on sites.

Safety is a core part of union business, the CFMEU NSW Branch and its officials , We also support members who speak out when safety is compromised.

The integral role our members play in our union is one of our main strengths – we are only as strong as our membership – a fact that is reinforced time and again.

Your delegates are on the front line every day defending your conditions and ensuring your entitlements are paid, and often play an active role on the safety committees maintaining standards on sites. We applaud their efforts and urge you to support them when asked. We encourage members to also think about by stepping up and taking on the role of elected delegate within your company.

Our focus in 2017 will be on continuing to grow our membership and securing a new round of enterprise agreements that help maintain our members’ living standards and safety on site.

At a time when the nation’s conservative forces are railing against unionism, the recent increase in membership in the CFMEU NSW Branch is heartening and highlights that workers recognise the important role we play in keeping the industry civilised and standing up for working-class families.

The CFMEU does that through:

• Fighting for better pay so working-class families are not struggling to make ends meet;
• Negotiating rostered days’ off as part of enterprise agreements to give workers more time with their children and families;
• Monitoring safety on site so every worker can go home intact at the end of a day; and
• In the case of an accident ensuring workers have insurance that will top up the gap between wages and compensation.

The reincarnation of the Australian Building and Construction Commission will not deter us in this work and we will continue to defend our members.

We are also excited about the approaching mergers of the CFMEU nationally with the MUA and textiles union, the TCFU. Both these unions have a strong history of activism and community engagement that sits well with our own commitment to social reform. We all have a role to play to fight growing inequality and the fear and insecurity that this can create. It is together united, not divided, that we can make our workplaces, community and country a better place for all.The amalgamation of three great unions will make us truly a force to be reckoned with.

The CFMEU NSW Branch is ready to take up the fight on behalf of our members in 2017. We hope you all join us.

Brian Parker, Rita Mallia, Rob Kera and Darren Greenfield.