‘Disdain’: CFMMEU manufacturing division moving to split from union

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‘Disdain’: CFMMEU manufacturing division moving to split from union

By Angus Thompson

The manufacturing arm of the CFMMEU is attempting to split from the broader union, after years of fighting between the various divisions over the direction of the controversial industrial body.

Michael O’Connor, a former national secretary, said he’d been instructed by the division’s executive to draw up an application to demerge from the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union to end years of acrimony, court action and allegations of electoral interference.

CFMEU manufacturing division Michael O’Connor has moved to split from the broader union.

CFMEU manufacturing division Michael O’Connor has moved to split from the broader union.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“It’s over two years of the union being dysfunctional, as well as the attacks, the disdain, the poaching, the interference with our elections,” Mr O’Connor told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

CFMMEU construction division national secretary Dave Noonan said the arm hadn’t formally heard from the manufacturing division about its intentions.

“They’ve chosen to reveal this to the media and publicly first, which is consistent with their pattern of behaviour,” Mr Noonan said, adding any proposal to demerge would involve the division establishing it was financially viable.

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Regarding allegations of electoral interference, he also said Mr O’Connor was peddling a “false narrative”.

Mr O’Connor said the manufacturing division had “been the victims of a whole range of attacks by the construction division” and there had been “no attempt to resolve continuous attacks and sniping by construction”.

The Federal Court recently ordered the Victorian construction division, helmed by controversial union figure John Setka, to hand back more than 300 members to the manufacturing division after determining they had been poached.

Mr Setka had been previously ordered by the court to cease and desist from “inducing, encouraging or advising” members of the manufacturing division to switch sides.

Mr O’Connor said an application would be made to the Fair Work Commission to split from the rest of the union, allowing his members a democratic say over processes.

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