Shadow, in my working life, I have known 3 people who were killed on the job. That is one every 15 years, not many you would say. In each and every case safety was a factor, and in each case the employer tried to minimize management negligence, and sheet home blame to the dead worker himself. It was through Union involvement, preventing cover ups, that Workcover was able to fully investigate the tragedies. The union also had to become involved later to ensure proper insurance was paid to the widow in each case.

It has been a long road to make safe working practices paramount over the notion of getting the job done, as the primary consideration, which prevailed for years. Certainly in the unregulated construction industry where deaths were common place back in the dark old days. The government of the time patted itself on the back for the fact that only 16 workers were killed during the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Many of the safe work practices in the industry today are down to the hard work of the unions. If that puts up costs for a few billionaire developers who you like to favor, stiff!

A couple of the union wins on safety in the construction industry in my life time that were resisted by employers at the time, the mandatory wearing of safety gear, hard hats, steel capped boots, hi vis vests. Less visible but just as necessary, power tool certification, trade licences, and site reporting, apprenticeship training.
Because we were unionized 100%, how many 'subbies' spat the dummy, when they were kicked off site for not meeting some of the above.

o sung wu, you see today police better equipped, better trained, better paid, better protected, better compensated when needed etc. Many of those day to day benefits did not come about by accident, but through a lot of hard work by the Police Association working with the employer (the government) behind the scenes. That has to continue into the future.

Paul,

I have experienced the depth of the CFMEU corruption first hand. The charging of rent to food and drink suppliers on a site that wasn't theirs, the phoney safety site shut downs etc after extortion demands, the deliberate blocking of toilets to shut the site etc, to have very sour experience with the CFMEU.

The faux attention they pay to safety is just a fig leaf for their corruption.

It is simply not true that unions, particularly of the CFMEU ilk, have been responsible for the improvements in workplace health and safety on building sites.

The big advances and the sure, consistent steps forward, have come from the skills and hard work of professional engineers and from technology and, because there were efficiency improvements and changes in the way of doing things, there was almost always bitter resistance from unions and often expressed against their own members as well.

There have been work process improvement/streamlining initiatives by individual union members that contributed to safety improvement but there too was the predictable resistance by union organisers.

Unions put their own leadership and structure first and foremost and ahead of the best interests of members where necessary. -As anyone who has not come down in the last shower in Australia would attest from relatively recent events. The unions don't mind having their officials preferred ahead of their own union members too.

Another thing, that Harbour Bridge example either betrays Paul1405's ignorance or his intent to pull the wool over readers' eyes. Think of the differences in available technology alone and the government pressure for completion.

What would also hugely wrong would be for rogue unions to be claiming the improvements achieved by the sensible mainstream unions where there was the preparedness to sit down and put the desired outcomes first.

Paul1405 misses his true vocation as a writer of cheap, trashy fiction. But wait a minute, that could be his job with the Greens. And apparently the Greens do believe in pay for fictional work.

Stock standard anti union bashing from the all knowing, all seeing, fly on the wall.
Leo, watching that trade person erect your new garden shed in the backyard, hardly qualifies you as an expert on the construction industry. But when has ignorance, and a general lack of knowledge stopped you in the past.

That is a stock reply from you, Paul1405.

Tell me you have at some time actually produced something of at least some minor practical value to someone.

That you haven't spent your entire life doing what you do here, which is stumbling around in the dark and stirring the possum.

Leo, Yes!