Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

These thugs act in wilful defiance of their own members and other workers on site. During the Grocon dispute in Melbourne, CFMEU staff members wanted to work but were blockaded from their own workplace by CFMEU officials who were not even working at the site. The blocked workers even took out an advertisement in the newspaper calling on their own union to back off and let them go to work in peace. Just yesterday, Sydney workers who had voted against the union's demands were again forced off their own work site as their ostensible representatives in the CFMEU padlocked the entry gate to their work site. The thuggish behaviour of the CFMEU hurts workers and trashes the reputation of honest trade unionists. It is time for Labor and the Greens to come on board and restore the reputation of unions. (Time expired)