Global rally against the ABCC

Date: 02 December 2008

Tens of thousands of workers around the world will today march with a common purpose - to abolish the
Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

This is Australia's first mass rally for workers rights since the election of the Rudd Labor government in November last year.

For more than three years, 900,000 workers employed in construction and related industries have existed without basic freedoms enjoyed by other Australian workers - freedom to associate, freedom to choose legal representation, freedom to silence, and freedom to take action over life-threatening health and safety issues.

An individual worker can be fined up to $22,000 for refusing to cooperate with the ABCC, or even be thrown in jail.

Construction workers will have fewer rights and be treated differently from all other workers for as long as the ABCC exists.

There is nothing like the ABCC in any other country around the world.

"Workers are taking to the streets today because the ABCC is not right and it's not fair," CFMEU NSW secretary Andrew Ferguson said.

"What does it say about Australian values and Australian democracy if workers can go to jail for declining to answer a question?

"The federal government - elected on the back of voter discontent with the Howard government industrial relations regime - must abolish the ABCC now."

Workers, civil rights supporters, and union leaders will join Bishop of Parramatta Kevin Manning, NSW Labor MPs, Green Bans pioneer Jack Mundey AO, and representatives of the Workplace Tragedy Family Support Group (WTFSG) who have lost loved ones in work-related incidents.

Rallies are also planned for Wollongong, Newcastle, all Australian capital cities, Wellington (New Zealand), Dublin (Ireland), Manila (The Philippines), Seoul (South Korea), London (UK), Zagreb (Croatia), Jakarta (Indonesia), Oslo (Norway), and Santiago (Chile) among others.

Sydney rally details

Time: Meet 11:45am

Media contact: Andrew Ferguson (CFMEU state sec) 0412 511 994;Saffron Howden (media officer) 0407 216 681

For further information

Contact:	Andrew Ferguson
Union:	CFMEU NSW
WWW:	http://www.rightsonsite.org.au/index.php

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed
by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW
[Credits] [Site Matters]