Howard Byrnes
I am a crane operator and I have worked in the building industry for three decades. I am a workplace delegate for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and regularly stand on picket lines outside crane yards, restaurants and building sites. I am a State Councillor and member of the Committee of Management of the NSW branch of the CFMEU — Construction Division where I’m a vocal advocate for socialist politics, as well as talking up refugee rights, environmental awareness and Aboriginal rights.
We desperately need an alternative to Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition. When Labor is in opposition, it poses as the party of the working class but when it is in power, it sells us out. It could have eliminated the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Instead it watered it down into the Fair Work Building and Construction, which limits workers’ rights to organise.
