Melbourne’s construction industry is shutting down for at least two weeks amid concerns that right-wing extremist groups who have infiltrated the union movement are behind violent anti-vaccination protests.
“We have seen appalling behavior on site and on our streets, and we’re acting decisively and without hesitation,” Victoria Minister for Industrial Relations Tim Pallas said in an e-mailed statement, announcing the closure from yesterday.
Concerns had been raised about the sector’s compliance with public health measures and directions.
Photo: AFP
Again yesterday, crowds gathered on the streets of Australia’s second-largest city, firing flares and fireworks. Protesters hurled cans and kicked police vehicles in defiance of the shutdown, which is to affect much of the state.
“The economic cost of this decision is estimated to be A$2.2 billion [US$1.6 billion] in construction activity,” Australian Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Housing Michael Sukkar said in a statement.
The closures would cost about A$640 million in lost wages and 320,000 jobs across the industry, 9.2 percent of all jobs in the state, the statement said.
Melbourne, which is in the midst of a sixth round of stay-at-home orders amid an outbreak of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, saw anti-lockdown demonstrations over the weekend at which young men scuffled with police, leading to more than 200 arrests.
Then on Monday, hundreds of construction workers protested against the state government’s orders — backed by the union movement — to enforce mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for people employed in the industry from Friday.
Bottles and crates were thrown at union leaders.
“This crowd was heavily infiltrated by neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremist groups,” the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union said in a statement on Monday.
The union decried the protests, saying that it was “clear that a minority of those who participated were actual union members.”
The Victorian government said that the shutdown was over concern about case numbers, transmission risk and reduced compliance.
It added that the action would “reduce movement, minimize transmission and allow for the entire industry to appropriately adapt to the chief health officer’s directions, including increasing vaccination rates.”
Victoria yesterday recorded 603 new infections, a record for the current outbreak.
Victoria Minister for Health Martin Foley told reporters that about two-thirds of the cases were linked to construction sites in the state.
On Monday, Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus said that she was aware that construction unions had been targeted by “extremist groups” riled about the issue around vaccination mandates in the industry.
It “was absolutely disgusting, that attack on a union office, and that was led and orchestrated by those very same people” who protested over the weekend, she said in a televised Australian Broadcasting Corp interview.
“They want to get unions on their side with their conspiracy theories that will lead to people being sick and dying, and I can tell you this: The union movement in this country will not be intimidated by them,” McManus added.
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