‘They know where I live’: CFMEU harassment laid bare
Andrew Stafford |
It was supposed to be a celebration of solidarity, the biggest day on the union calendar.
But Stacey Schinnerl – the first woman to lead an Australian Workers’ Union branch in its almost 140-year history – instead feared for her safety.
During 2023 Labour Day celebrations, a man with his face painted with the CFMEU logo approached as she stood near her child at an AWU marquee.
He started abusing her as her 13-year-old son watched on, Ms Schinnerl tearfully recalled.
“He advanced towards me … we ended up chest to chest. I kept on saying ‘my son is here, just go. Don’t do this here’.”
She said the man then leaned over towards her child and said: “How does it feel to know your mum’s a f***ing grub who sells out workers?”
Ms Schinnerl claimed the rival union’s harassment continued as she exited the festivities, when she soon realised four young men were following her.
They were members of the CFMEU’s “youth crew”, she said, whose logo features a striking cobra.
The militant union describes the crew as their next generation of loyal foot soldiers, Ms Schinnerl noted.
As one of them closed to half a step behind her, the rival union leader turned to confront him.
“This is a pivotal moment for both of us and the decision you make in the next five seconds is going to be very impactful on your life and mine,” she remembered saying.
One of the other men called the rest of the crew off.
The chilling encounters were detailed as the AWU official gave evidence to an inquiry into the CFMEU and broader allegations of misconduct, corruption and criminality in Queensland’s construction industry.
The state government triggered the probe after an independent report into the local CFMEU branch exposed a culture of violence, intimidation and misogyny.
The union was put into administration nationwide and its leadership removed in 2024 amid reports bikies and other organised crime figures had infiltrated the organisation.
Your Union Your Choice, a group set up by ex-CFMEU officials dumped as part of the administration, has rejected allegations of violence and intimidation, labelling the inquiry a “farce” and dismissing the independent report as “an exercise in confirming a predetermined outcome”.
Ms Schinnerl became emotional at times before the inquiry as she described how a simmering dispute with the CFMEU became “sinister”, sparking fears for her family’s safety and her life.
Amid a battle over major projects in July 2023, CFMEU members wearing masks allegedly stopped an AWU delegate from entering a tunnel worksite at Brisbane’s $19 billion Cross River Rail.
“The CFMEU members passed on a message … to me personally: ‘If I stick my head up it will get knocked off’,” she said.
“I took that to be a threat on my life.”
Asked if the message also left her afraid for her family’s safety, Ms Schinnerl blinked back tears and said “absolutely”.
She told the inquiry she knew of some AWU officials who had had to move house as threats of violence escalated.
“I don’t know where (CFMEU leaders) live, but I’m reasonably confident that they know where I live,” Ms Schinnerl said.
By 2024, she joined Queensland Council of Unions secretary Jacqueline King in meeting with Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski and deputy Cheryl Scanlon to put what they felt were credible death threats on record.
It was a step neither wanted to take.
Within the union movement, ratting on your mates was considered the ultimate breach of solidarity, Ms Schinnerl said.
But in hindsight, she wished she had acted sooner to protect the safety of her members and her own family – even if that meant making the AWU a pariah.
Her testimony provided a dramatic insight into what she alleged was the misogynist culture of the CFMEU and the way the union exercised power.
A flawed agreement between police and Queensland’s Office of Industrial Relations enabled the CFMEU to continue its reign unchecked, she said.
The memorandum of understanding provided a workaround that enabled the union to access work sites and wage a bullying campaign, the inquiry was told.
The agreement stipulated that in the event of workplace disputes, police would defer to the industrial relations office.
A woman said to have a close relationship with then-CFMEU president Royce Kupsch handled complaints at the office.
Ms Schinnerl said the agreement effectively provided CFMEU officials access to sites without permission.
Those sites then became flashpoints for violence as the CFMEU allegedly bullied its rival union, with behaviour ranging from the juvenile – plastering “Australia’s Weakest Union” stickers on AWU cars – to outright menacing.
However, Ms Schinnerl said the vast majority of union members were hard-working men and women who only wanted a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, with the security of knowing they would come home safe to their families at night.
The brutal irony, she said, was that while CFMEU officials preached workplace safety, their actions did so much to undermine it for their colleagues.
The inquiry is due to resume in 2026.
AAP
