Tunnellers dig in for safety

Workcover doesn't employ a single inspector with tunnelling 
experience in a city where more than 1000 workers are employed on 
a $3.5 billion underground boom.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) 
organiser, Steve Dixon, unveiled those statistics in an 
impassioned plea for a "fair go" for tunnellers, after a father 
of two was killed on Sydney's cross-city project.

The CFMEU and AWU are urging Workcover to resuscitate the 
specialist Civil Sector Safety Unit, disbanded several years ago.

Dixon said tunnelling was a dangerous, complex, specialised 
occupation.

"Workcover expect to send out someone with no experience to 
understand the situation and, frankly, that's impossible", he 
said.

"It's not fair on the inspectors, for a start, and it's certainly 
not fair on people risking their lives to help rebuild Sydney.

"If the government told people they could take their cars to the 
local bakery to get a rego, the public would be horrified. It's 
the same thing."

Workers held a memorial service for Ronald Shore in Sydney, last 
Thursday. His body is being flown back to New Zealand for burial.

A mass meeting, last Friday, decided Baulderstone Hornibrooke's 
cross-city tunnel job would remain closed until geotechnical 
surveys and safety audits had been completed.

Australian Workers' Union (AWU) organiser, Kevin Browne, said 
tunnellers on three city jobs had been "extremely generous" in 
providing support for Shore's family.

The union hopes to make a six-figure contribution to a trust fund 
that is being established for his daughters in New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Labor Council is backing AWU and CFMEU bids to meet 
Industrial Relations Minister, John Della Bosca, over 
occupational health and safety in the sector.

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Workers Online