Strike threatened over unionist trial

A landmark trial set to close this Friday could see an Australian worker jailed for participating in union activities for the first time in Australian history.

Ark Tribe, a builder from South Australia, has spent the last two years in and out of Adelaide’s Magistrate Court for refusing to meet with the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) in 2008. He faces a penalty of six months imprisonment.

Andrew Ferguson, state secretary of the CFMEU construction division, has threatened a national shut-down of all construction sites nation wide if Ark Tribe is convicted.

Following the Howard Government’s 2005 workplace reforms construction workers suspected of workplace organising may be called in to the Commission for interrogation. During that time workers have no right to silence or a lawyer, rights that are even preserved during Australian Federal Police interrogation.

“I was never gonna dob on my mates. It’s not fair, it’s not right, and I’d never do it,” Mr. Tribe told the City Hub when asked why he refused to go before the Commission.

Thousands of other unionists took part in mass demonstrations around the country on Tuesday in support of Mr. Tribe. Around two thousand unionists protested in Sydney outside the ABCC offices on Elizabeth Street , calling for the charges against Mr. Tribe to be dropped and the ABCC to be abolished. According to the CFMEU, there has been a 95 per cent jump in workplace deaths for construction workers since the Commission was introduced in 2005.

“With its coercive powers and ideological targeting of construction workers, the ABCC plays a political game rather than a useful or meaningful role in the industry,”said Dave Noonan, national secretary of the CFMEU construction division.

“Ark Tribe is accused of nothing more than attending a meeting about safety issues on site.”

If convicted, Mr Tribe’s imprisonment is expected to add more strain to an already weakened union-ALP alliance in the upcoming election.