Evidence has been produced at the Trade Union Royal Commission that shows the Australian Workers Union (AWU) took bribes in recent years to rip off workers millions of dollars. Also as part of the deal the employers illegally handed over the personal details of their employees to the AWU so they could use them for what is known as “Branch Stacking”. The employees were then signed up as members of the union without their knowledge.
This gave the leadership of the AWU hundreds if not thousands of fake members which gives them more power within the Labor Party at state and national conferences etc.
Almost all unions are aligned and part of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). A union’s voting power within the ALP is directly related to how many members they have. It is common for unions to deliberately inflate the number of members they have but it is clearly an action that is corrupt.
I do not remember ever hearing of companies colluding with unions for branch stacking until hearing the evidence at the Royal Commission this week. It is probably worth the cost of the Royal Commission by itself because it shows how entrenched the corrupt collusion between the unions and companies is and has been for a long time.
It is worth having a look at the corruption and branch stacking exposed at the RC the last few days as it might have implications and/or apply to the current election for National President of the Labor Party which is in progress.
Victorian Labor MP Cesar Melhem. Accused last year at the Royal Commission of using over $30,000 from a slush fund for personal use.
Cleanevent – (Click here for the opening statement by Counsel Assisting Jeremy Stoljar)
On Thursday and Friday the Royal Commission focused on the deal between the AWU and a company called Cleanevent which is a subsidiary of the listed company Spotless.
“Embattled state Labor MP Cesar Melhem cut a deal whereby a cleaning firm gave his union thousands of dollars in return for driving down workers’ pay, a royal commission has heard.”
“Cleanevent, a subsidiary of cleaning giant Spotless, paid the Australian Workers Union up to $25,000 a year under the agreement that traded off higher wages and casuals’ penalty rates and saved the company about $2 million in labour costs.”
“Mr Melhem, who was AWU state secretary at the time, was involved in negotiations for the unusual deal with Cleanevent that kept staff on outdated WorkChoices-era agreements and meant some were paid about $18 instead of $50 an hour.” (The $50 would be a penalty rate for working on days such as Boxing Day etc)
“He has been summonsed to face the trade union royal commission for questioning early next week.” (Click here to read more)
The actual corrupt agreement between Cleanevent and the AWU in 2010 was also signed by the then National Secretary Paul Howes who obviously has many questions to answer as well. It helps explain Mr Howes’ sudden resignation in March 2014 just as the Trade Union Royal Commission was starting. Mr Howes knew what was coming and jumped ship. (Click here to see the agreement. Signatures are on page 5)
Paul Howes and Bill Shorten. Both former National Secretaries of the AWU and both with involvement and knowledge of the corrupt AWU deals.
BMD – Labour hire company (Click here for the opening statement by Counsel Assisting Jeremy Stoljar)
On Friday the Royal Commission started dealing with the Labour hire company BMD and their dodgy deal with the AWU.
“Labour hire company BMD revealed today that it paid $14,300 in 2007 and $19,800 in 2010 to keep peace with Mr Melhem and the union during pay deal negotiations.”
“BMD also sent the AWU a list of all its employees, some of whom were added to the union’s membership without their knowledge.” (Click here to read more)
The Royal Commission will hear from further witnesses regarding both Cleanevent and BMD next week.
Bill Shorten’s boy for the Labor Party National President Election – (Click here to see the candidates)
If you look at the Australian Labor Party National Executive (Click here to see the full executive) it is full of union officials such as Joe De Bruyn, Michael Ravbar and Tony Sheldon etc.
There is currently an election in progress which closes on the 12th of June 2015. All ALP members can vote for a new National President and two National Vice-Presidents. To be a member of the ALP you need to be a member of a union. So I have to wonder if all the fake members that the AWU have been collecting are also used to register fake ALP members for the election of the President and Vice-President of the ALP and other issues were members vote.
Vote rigging within the ALP was raised only a few months ago by ALP members regarding Bill Shorten’s election to leader of the party. (Click here to read more) So it is plainly a major problem within the party and unions.
Henry Pinskier
One of the candidates for National President is Henry Pinskier who says:
“I am not an MP, I am not an ex MP. I am not seeking public office either now or in the future” and “I seek the nomination of ALP President without any endorsement of the factions.” (Click here to read more)
That sounds beautiful. A clean skin to fix the problems with the ALP. The problem is if you start researching Mr Henry Pinskier’s background he is not the clean skin he tries to make out.
For example one of Mr Pinskier’s daughters, Abby Pinskier, works at the HSU Victoria Number 1 Branch as a Receptionist. As regular readers of this site know there is massive fraud and theft in progress at the HSU Victoria Number 1 Branch by Bill Shorten’s supporters. (Click here and here to read more)
Ms Pinskier’s name showed up in documents tendered by Diana Asmar at the Royal Commission last year as per the picture below. (Click here to see the full document)
I wonder if Ms Pinskier’s position at the HSU was advertised or did she get the job through word of mouth.
A quick search also reveals Mr Pinskier’s close relationship with Federal MP Michael Danby:
“Henry Pinskier is a senior figure in the right-wing Labor Unity faction, a former Danby staffer and sits on a number of state government boards. His wife, Victorian Multicultural Commissioner Marcia Pinskier, was on a short-list drawn up by the ALP to replace Evan Thornley in the upper house seat of Southern Metropolitan, which takes in Danby’s electorate.”
“In Danby’s maiden speech to parliament, he thanked Henry Pinskier as one of his “three musketeers”. Rebecca Pinskier has worked as a Danby staffer at the member’s St Kilda office.” (Click here to read more)
I wrote about Michael Danby a few weeks ago. (Click here to read more) He is Bill Shorten’s Parliamentary Secretary.
So for Henry Pinskier to say “I seek the nomination of ALP President without any endorsement of the factions” is a joke. Mr Pinskier fails to tell the ALP members voting that he worked for Mr Danby, his daughter Rebecca also worked for Mr Danby and his other daughter Abby has been given a job at the HSU. Mr Pinskier says he won’t be running for public office but fails to tell the voters whether his wife will or not and that she previously was short listed for an ALP seat which is clearly relevant.
Hopefully Henry Pinskier will not win the election for either the President role or either of the Vice-President roles. But it looks like he has the voters stacked in his favour so to speak.
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Categories: Bill Shorten
Cesar Melhem is the Craig Thomson of the Victorian labor government. Melhem is a thief & a liar who has bought his way into the Victorian parliament. As for Paul Howes, he must be required to take the witness stand at some stage between now to the end of the year. No wonder why Howes resigned from the AWU last year. He had to have known/suspected that the Royal Commission would eventually investigate these matters which has included the Clean Event deal.
Just typical Labor…..up to their usual and continuous fraud, skullduggery and other adjectives that I will not mention on KCA!
Kurt is probably right that Howes left quite suddenly last year knowing that the garbage might hit the fan down the track and hopefully here comes a cement-mixer load his way!…..then Clean Event will genuinely need to be called in to clear up the mess.
As usual, Shorten’s paws are all over these dealings….hardly surprising……and how many decades has branch-stacking been going-on to obtain factional power…..methinks forever.
Ever wonder where the 600 billion debt went!
Never ever let these thieves get control of the public purse again!
The country will never recover from their six years of absolute carnage!
isn’t Howes now on the board of beyond blue?
Yes he is. Julia Gillard is also on the board of Beyond Blue too. Corruption working overtime.
Then there is Winslow. The same deal, but that was a carry over from good ol Bill
BMD is not a labour hire company, it is actually a pretty large civil engineering and construction company building roads, bridges, freeways etc.
BMD. Are residing in the same cesspit as the AWU. Where Howes or Shorten are involved there is corruption, Howes did not jump off the gravy train for any other reason than the tentacles of the royal commission were getting too close. The booting of Shorten as labor leader is not a case of whether but when. When the temperature starts to rise during the RC interviews the thin ice which Shorten is skating on will collapse under him and hopefully the truth will come out and all the sycophants will walk away and pretend not to know him. Allan Usherwood from Myalup WA (Retired Aircraft Engineer)
What is the reason for this information not being spread all over Australia by the media. Our family, friends and aquaintances and many more Australians have had more than enough of seeing and reading about Shorten, the Labor Party, the union, and the polls compared to the LNP, bribery and corruption. .
In any situation brought to the fore-front other than politics, serial killing, armed robbery, drug smuggling, pornography, etc; they would be incarcerated for life.
Maybe we are wrong in our concerns, corruption, bribery and thievery in all areas will continue to be ‘they way it is’, and will continue, ad infinitum.
We are have the articles on the KC of A site, indicating that Australia is close to being equal to all the other corrupt countries in the world.
This has been going on for years and as soon as the Royal Commission is finished they will start again where they were stopped.
How many people know that all the ALP people are intermarried, because the women keep their maiden name, they all have plum jobs within our institutions, they are married to the people at the ABC, so therefore this media institution is never reporting on any of that for starters.
I believe the Judiciary in involved, therefore these ‘soft’ sentences etc.etc.
There is no doubt we live in a very corrupt country!
It will ever be like it was. Union members are quitting everywhere because they are now finding out how badly they were ripped off.
This makes for interesting. It would seem they’re all a shifty bunch tarred with the one brush. Stuff the union members they say. They’re only pawns to both the employers and union officials to be used by both in their corrupt struggle for personal power and monetary gain. Just a clutch of grubs clinging desperately to the garbage that industrial relations has become by their abuse of the system.
According to the Australian bureau of statistics, Union membership has fallen from 23.5 percent in 1990 to today’s figures of 16.6 percent is an example of how people like Bill Shorten, Paul Howe’s, Michael Williamson and Craig Thomson have decimated the union movement. There are others in the Labor hierarchy but they have fortunately in their naivety have faded into the history books.
You have to wonder in light of these revelations, how many of that 16.6% even know they are union members, or how many of them are even still alive?
The really interesting thing here is the hypocrisy of the ALP and the Union movement. They mounted a massive campaign against Workchoices on the grounds that it was reducing worker entitlements.
Yet here we have the AWU entering into an EBA which seriously reduces workers entitlements as opposed to the award conditions which applied.
In addition in return for the favour to the employer they received a secret commissions year after year. They received a list of employees and included them on union members’ lists without their knowledge in order to cement their influence in the ALP at conferences and preselections.
The Royal Commission revelations here show how corrupt both morally and politically the ALP and the Union movement is. What is even more telling is that there has even barely a murmur from the ABC and the MSM to let the public know what has been afoot.
To date the AWU has declined to contest any evidence put forward by witnesses in this matter. This speaks volumes. There is no contest and the AWU has been caught red handed. Now they are desperately trying to mute any publicity about it by declining to contest these issues and draw attention to itself.
Rorting of Unions and Associations has been happening for 50 years and maybe longer – where there’s large sums of money there will always be dishonest people trying to get their hands on it, whether it be in a union, association, bank, political party or charity or retail shop; just to name a few – strict independent auditing is only ever the solution and a full Profit & Loss in details sent to all members so they can scrutinise their own. Also Party stacking has also been a long time practice – I grew up in one branch of a mainstream political party where the long standing Federal member would stack the branch pre-selection with his people at the meeting; and then you would not see them again for a long time. A well respected MP in the community on many levels. It happens everywhere – in at least two parties.
So Im curious why the Commission has taken so long to come along – the Builder’s Labour’s Union in the 1970s had questionable accounting and membership recording at the time!!! Let’s hope strong independent auditing is introduced with financial reporting more accessible and transparent for members to review and question in all institutions.
If no one goes to jail; where is the disincentive for those that seek out these types of funds to grab. I believe that both the NSW Fire Brigade and the NSW SES have had their fair share of people being caught with their finger in the lolly jar in some shape or form. I would suggest it’s endemic in many institutions. Look at our banks?
However, I do disagree with having to belong to a Union to belong to the Labor Party Shane . . . I went on their website today and filled in their form just to see if you are right – but alas that wasn’t a criteria. So I’m guessing you are wrong – which is rare for you! Always love the topics of mystery you unravel.
This from April 2014:
“Mr Shorten, a former leader of the Australian Workers Union, was due to use a speech in Melbourne today to call for the party to allow people to join the ALP without having to also be a member of a trade union.”
Read more at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-07/shorten-urges-change-to-alp-rules-remove-union-requirement/5370652
To my knowledge it has not changed.
And from May 2015:
“A survey of candidates for the ALP national presidency has found broad support for granting members of affiliated unions automatic party membership and voting rights.”
Read more at: http://theconversation.com/alp-presidential-candidates-sympathetic-to-giving-unionists-automatic-party-membership-42000
Why aren’t there daily reports of the current Royal commission in our local paper, our TV news reports, local radio stations, the ABC, SBS etc.,etc. Here in Adelaide, not one mention & I would guess in Perth, Brisbane ,Darwin,Tasmania very little or no coverage whatsoever. I would also guess that the 2 major city’s papers in Sydney & Melbourne, would get a reasonable daily coverage . Probably the only newspaper to give a full coverage would be ‘ The Australian & Weekend Australian” , although not to certain of which bias they would express to their readers. Why , is the question ! Why is the general public not kept informed of this RC. Who is controlling the media & the Journalists. Why is it left to people such as Shane to bring these corrupt practices to our attention via his website when such grave matters should be page 1 headlines?
Hi Sam the Man,
Your concerns about not being aware of what really goes on lie 100% in OUR own main stream media’s responsibility……they have failed, but have failed intentionally.
Occasionally they will produce a coup like the NSW ICAC has documented because of the dedication of their investigative reporters, but:
overall their CEOs, senior management have decided what to tell you.
Exposing this nation’s deeds via the internet is our ONLY freedom from their despotism.
Please keep on topic
Don’t simply crucify the unions on their own for this corrupt behaviour. The big firms involved are equally guilty. It takes two to tango!
They need each other to survive. Without big firms unions are dead. Without unions and their push to kill off small business and pave the way for big firms would be dead too. Its a symbiotic relationship
No-one would mind if unions were honest and protected employees from corporation owners and management undermining the the conditions of the employees by paying meagre wages in workhouses with atrocious conditions.
This was the reason for employees forming unions in the past.
The undermining is now undertaken by the unions to steal funds which belong to the union members and employees, done to protect the unions own agenda, hand in hand with the Labor government to govern Australia.
The reason for the Royal Commission is one step, hopefully of many steps forward, to bring a modicum of honesty back into the union movement, the judiciary and corrupt Labor government.
The situation is a far more serious situation than ‘two, dancing the tango’.
What chance that any legislation to clean up the crooks will get past a Labor Senate? None. Turkeys don’t vote for Thankgiving.
What would possibly motivate an AWU leader to do deals such as the Cleanevents/Spottless obscenity? BMD, et al. Deals to keep Workchoices agreements alive when without Union intervention workers could simply revert to the minimum award wages because the work choices agreement had expired? What justification after an ACTU “Your Rights at Work” campaign to throw WorkChoices overboard?
1. Cash into the Union coffers
2. Membership numbers to gain inflated political influence within the labour movement, influence over Labor leadership. (Read as AWU kingmaker Shorten placing Rudd,Gillard, Rudd and now himself at the helm)
3. The election ballot papers of those unaware they were Union members – guarantees the security of elected office holders if they can lay hands on them.
4. Quid pro quo financial contribution to Cesar Melham’s Industry 2020 slush fund by companies benefiting from the deals, giving unregulated access to huge amounts of cash.
5. Because the sorry fact is that workers are just cattle to the likes of Shorten, Melham, Williamson, Thomson et al, there to milk whilst ever they keep mooing.
Yes, yes…but how many will go to prison? not holding my breath…..