Hundreds of tradesmen have walked off construction sites in Brisbane as a major union calls for their starting pay to be increased to $240,000 a year.
CFMEU workers at seven sites across the city gathered from 3.45am on Tuesday for the first of four days of protected industrial strike action.
Tradies have stood outside the Exhibition Station Cross River Rail site to protest as tense negotiations over a new enterprise deal continue.
Some enthusiastic attendees held signs that read “CFMEU here for the blue” and “never cross a picket line,” the mail reported.
The CFMEU has demanded that the new EBA include a salary increase of $2,000 for some workers, as well as 20 additional days per year.
Sources familiar with the union’s demands revealed that under Cross River Rail’s proposal, an entry-level worker would receive a $15,000 pay increase, bringing their annual salary to a staggering $240,000.
In a statement, CFMEU confirmed that hundreds of people had walked away from their jobs on Tuesday after contractor CPB refused to negotiate better wages and working conditions.
Hundreds of tradesmen have walked off construction sites in Brisbane as a major union calls for their starting pay to be increased to $240,000 a year.
The union said CPB had received a list of concerns months ago. including increased job security, the introduction of a heating policy and the inclusion of traffic controllers and cleaners in the EBA.
“After slaving away for more than four years under a poor Australian Workers Union agreement, Cross River Rail workers have stood up and said enough is enough,” CFMEU Deputy State Secretary Jade Ingham said.
“The seeds of this dispute were planted in 2019, when the Queensland Labor government made a dirty deal with the AWU that denied Cross River Rail workers a voice in their enterprise bargaining agreement.”
Ms Ingham said workers were “fed up” with CPB’s “dirty divide and rule tactics” and its “deplorable mismanagement and corporate bastardry”.
He said the shopkeepers were sick and tired of seeing their co-workers maimed and killed.
“This summer, more than 30 workers have been hospitalized and one contract worker has died from heat stress, but CPB refuses to honor workers’ requests for an effective heat policy,” the union secretary said.
‘Cross River Rail workers have joined the CFMEU en masse because the CPB won’t listen to them, the AWU won’t speak for them and the Queensland government only cares about staged photographs and spin.
‘Civil construction workers are not second-class citizens and for the first time they have the opportunity to have a say in their future.
“The CFMEU will support them at all times.”
CFMEU workers at seven sites across the city gathered from 3.45am on Tuesday for the first of four days of protected industrial strike action.
A CBU spokesperson said it had “met regularly with relevant union representatives from the AWU and CFMEU to negotiate a fair and reasonable agreement”.
“Although these meetings were productive, an agreement has not yet been reached between the parties,” the spokesperson said.
A Cross River Rail Delivery Authority spokesperson told the Courier Mail: “We encourage all parties involved to continue to negotiate in good faith and reach a resolution, so we can continue to deliver this transformative project.”
Cross River Rail is a 10.2 kilometer railway line that includes 5.9 kilometers of twin tunnels running under the Brisbane River and the CBD.
Four new tube stations are being built at Boggo Road, Woolloongabba, Albert Street and Roma Street, plus a new above-ground station at Exhibition and the rebuilding of seven stations between Dutton Park and Salisbury.
The project also includes three new stations on the Gold Coast, the construction of two train depots and the installation of a new world-class signaling system.