The Australian Financial Review ran an opinion piece by Damien Tudehope, NSW Minister for Finance and Small Business, titled "Union extortion ransoms jobs".
The CFMEU's role as a guardian of the Award safety net for construction workers has been backed by the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission in a decision which reaffirmed workers' rights to be paid their full redundancy entitlements.
The CFMEU is calling on federal and state governments to stimulate the construction industry to save jobs and help drive Australia’s economic recovery, warning hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk if construction slows in coming months.
State and federal governments need to support local workers to rebuild bushfire affected communities rather than rely on cheap and exploitative backpacker labour, warns the CFMEU.