Belly, you say 'Garrett has nothing to answer for'

So, are we to assume that you also say that the directors and managers of the Beaconsfield mine also have nothing to answer for?

Very similar situation hey!

So tell me, where would the lunch/rest room have been placed at the road work site.

I assume close to the cars. If so, they would have had to walk some 100m to use them.

What is the differnce?

Unions have done a lot for the workers however they have also done a great deal of damage as they just don't know when to stop pushing.

The building industry is full of contractors because unions simply made it to difficult for bosses to employ staff directly.

The building industry may be full of contractors but I think it's mainly due to them being a cheaper option for building companies than maintaining a full-time staff and not just due to union involvement alone. Unions are mainly involved in wages and working conditions - particularly workplace safety.

A problem is that as they drive the prices down, the contractors have to cut their own costs and take as many short-cuts as they can. Rising Insurance costs and other overheads make it difficult for contractors to maintain profitability while prices being offered are also going down.
In order to make the same amount of profit as before they have to do more work in the same amount of time and the only way to do this is to do it cheap and rough.

Employee-based workplaces assume that nobody has any common-sense when it comes to safety. Nobody polices contractors until they are investigated by Workcover or Comcare until after an accident has occured.

rechtub can it be you have learned more than me about construction from behind your butcher shop counter.
Have you any ideas of your own?
Those references to Tassy mine disaster are from TAPP.
And have zero to do with this thread, how do you link them.
Please find a link to the near daily death of a truck driver, in his factory, his truck, on his factory floor the road.
Tell me why work cover in all its names, never investigates that workplace death.
Sit in cars to eat, have wounds dressed fill in time sheets, rechtub!
That work site was 3 klms long.
Cars are not allowed on site, must park out side.
Can you think, for a second, I have any respect left for you?
Sorrow yes but respect, it is gone forever bloke.
In my minds eye I see a country red neck, just like two I saw blessing mad Joe, in the year he stopped Howard winning an election those two blind foolish men did not understand they helped Labor win.
AUSTRALIANS rechtub never ever share you views wait until the election and find that out.
Go back bloke, we all should, re read your posts and know why I find you lost.

belly:"your rudeness, insults to my union are noted."

As are your rudeness and personal insults to me. It cuts both ways, matey: you might be able to walk onto a worksite and pulll the high and mighty Union Man act, but here you stand and fall by your words, not who you know.

Despite all your bluster, you know damned well I'm right about the reasons for Garrett being hung out to dry by the CFMEU (with the apparent happy consent of the AWU, if your own words are anything to go by).

You also know that the other major construction Union, your own AWU, has been conspicuously silent. You say "surely it is electrical trades work", yet your union made no effort to have it only done by electrical trades, did it? After all, if it all went wrong, the CFMEU would take the fall. You also know that the ETU/CEPU didn't make any noise at all, leaving the hard work to be done by the NECA and the Master Electricians, neither of which are Unions.

This case and your responses illustrate all that is wrong with the Union movement. Buck-passing; arguments about demarcation; attempts to sidetrack genuine discussion into dead-ends; deep loathing between unions who supposedly have the best interests of workers in mind; petty politicking for the advancement of would-be politicians like Howes and nepotists like Ludwig. http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/Factionalism.html

No wonder you're finding it hard to get members.

Belly:"con men installers badly trained kids and lack of understanding bought about these workplace deaths"

There is no evidence that any deaths were caused by "con man installers", but a lot of evidence about the inadequacy of training that was endorsed by the Unions.

Rstuart,

"The press have already grown tired of the Garret issue"

Apparently not:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/spin-and-silver-tongues-cant-hide-an-empty-morality-20100217-odtm.html

"Spin and silver tongues can't hide an empty morality

In all his shouted, grinning pronouncements about the program that has killed four installers, sparked at least 86 roof fires and electrified an estimated 1000 houses, Garrett resorts to impersonal lawyerly gobbledygook"

Each time there is a labor c*ck up the polls dip and bounce back, but never to where they started.

A year ago labor was riding high and threatening double dissolution at each senate vote. Now there is silence.

Abbott was certainly far down on my list of preferred liberal leaders, but he is certainly the pit bull they need now.

Did you antiseptic see that line in my post, about that union?
Can you read between the lines and see why I said it.
Apart from the fact I truly believe it.
My contempt for thugs and mugs in union shirt s is real and forever.
You put a word picture of such a union man on me, I am no such thing.
I exist because of my true contempt for the comrades, the very left threatening idiots who got all unions blamed for their actions.
Who dislike our firm but honest attempts to talk issues out with bosses.
Not entering their offices shouting, questioning the wedding of his/her parents and kicking the waste paper basket over.
See we are not able to freely say what I have, but we know it is true.
And in my view you know, most know it is unlikely even one of these installers, yes not one, is/was a union member.
Trade in truth, look just a glance, at Garrett and you will find much to be critical of, but dragging this dead beast into his lap will not work.
And my insulting mate, know I am me 24/7 my members say at least you sit with us, talk with us, not to us.
That other mob?strutting up and down the lunch rooms comrades and brothers this and that like bantam roosters crowing then leaving full of self assurance that is miss placed and only the sounds of news hand outs going into the rubbish bins follow.
Strangely mine are saved on every table read and re read?