Victorian builders accuse Bill Oliver of holding them to ransom
No one is more despised by Melbourne's property tycoons than Bill Oliver. In Victoria's $25 billion construction game, the stubbled Scotsman can shut down rogue building sites in a flash and, builders say, hold their projects to ransom.
Each working day in bleak city, Oliver guides his 30,000-strong army of Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union workers towards the industrial promised land -- a world of bolstered wages, expanded rights and far-reaching political influence. While his mainstream union rivals seem content to take the low road, Oliver and crew are always on hand to extract cash and conditions from tight-fisted employers who'd really prefer a new Lexus.
Just look at the enterprise agreement Oliver negotiated in 2007 for those working on the controversial, and still unfinished, $24 billion Wonthaggi desalination plant. It, more than any other wage deal in the last 20 years, signalled the return of militant union power to Victoria.
"Industrially, there's no one that can match Bill," one senior Victorian Labor MP says. "He's the master of his domain and all the big decisions go through him."
Already dominant on the thousands of construction sites scattered across Melbourne's sprawl, the desal deal showed how the union's aggressive tactics could still prevail on projects of state importance, even while the broader labour movement suffered massive membership declines.
The mere mention of Bill Oliver's name sends right wing critics into fits of apoplexy. They contrast the "20%" lower cost of building a project like the EastLink toll road (using labour provided by Cesar Melhem's more moderate Australian Workers Union) with the CFMEU's strong-arm tactics on sites like the Westgate Bridge, Royal Children's Hospital and Epping Market.
But as Oliver explains, he regularly cops criticism "for getting good deals for our members ... but that's our job. I am not paid by the business lobby or [Ted] Baillieu. I am paid by members of this union, and it's my job to represent their interests and get the best deal I can."
And he denies he is personally powerful: "No! The only power I have is because of the strength of the members, the dedication of the delegates and the union as a whole. Any power I have is not about me ... but about the collective strength. These may seem old fashioned concepts, but they are still true, nevertheless. That's the whole idea of a union: strength in numbers."
Regular sparring partner Brian Welch of the Master Builders Association begs to differ. He says under Oliver's reign building costs in Victoria are once again 30% higher than other states, with multi-million dollar fines levelled by the ABCC failing to make an impact.
Welch -- who reluctantly signed off on wage increases worth 20% over four years last June -- says simply: "Ignore Oliver at your peril".
"Does that mean that he's powerful? Well, any building site can be affected significantly and as a consequence that makes them an influence that you would not wish to ignore," Welch says. "Bill's the head of that union. If he says that he's upset with a particular builder or specialist contractor then they're very upset because he holds their business in his hands."
ALP affiliation has also delivered the CFMEU leverage, with Oliver throwing his weight around and often threatening to vote with the party's rebel Right to exert preselection pressure on the dominant Socialist Left and forces pledged to Stephen Conroy and Bill Shorten.
(In 2009, in the wake of deal cut between those two outfits, Oliver was allegedly a player in a side agreement that delivered to his members, rather than his rivals, thousands of coveted jobs on the desal plant in exchange for his preselection heft. The MPs and unions involved strenuously denied any such agreement was ever reached).
The bearded enforcer says spats with less aggressive unions like Melhem's AWU are unavoidable, especially when they try to undercut his wages and conditions. "Unlike some other unions in the industry, it's no secret that we get better deals," he says. "Despite rumours that it's our charm and good looks that win people over, the truth is that we fight hard for our members."
He's certainly not shy about countering continual media criticism, issuing this fiery retort late last year to a run of Herald Sun hatchets that tried to implicate the union in AFL ticket scams and other nefarious behaviour.
It's been a familiar theme ever since the days in the early 1970s when Oliver started working as a shipwright and shop steward on Glasgow's Charlie Connell shipyards at age 20. Halfway through completing his papers to travel to Australia, a group of radical workers, led by Jimmy Reid, occupied the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, thwarting the Tory government's plans to shut them down. After the struggle, Oliver's papers came through and he ended up in Melbourne, working again as a shipwright and carpenter before joining the Building Workers Industrial Union as a full-time organiser in 1986.
He was elevated to the CFMEU's leadership in 1993 as assistant secretary to Martin Kingham following the BWIU's merger with the Builders Labourers Federation. He played a key role in the 1998 waterfront dispute and leading thousands of unionists to testify before the Cole Royal Commission and succeeded Kingham when his comrade transferred to the CFMEU's national office in 2009.
His greatest triumphs have been felt inside Fair Work. Last year's landmark four-year enterprise deal delivered 20% wage increases, double overtime pay and a hefty $750 a week living away from home allowance.
The self-described "principled, practical, tenacious and tough" operator says there is no silver bullet and definitely nothing illegal in his robust approach to vigorous employer relations. Stories of bikies and bad behaviour are legion but Oliver says he's basically just a figurehead for years of collective struggle.
"We are continuing to build on a tradition of militancy in this union that has been part of the Victorian industrial scene for the last 40 years. Our members have struggled long and hard to make a dangerous and dirty industry safe and rewarding for them...Our industrial strength has not happened overnight."
And if you're a commercial player in the building industry it won't be disappearing for a while either.
This article originally appeared on The Power Index.