‘This is my child. Do not do this’: Mum reveals foul abuse from CFMEU

2 months ago 8

A top Queensland union leader copped an intimidatory foul-mouthed tirade from CFMEU rivals in front of her children during an aggressive campaign to push the Australian Workers Union from construction sites, an inquiry into the militant union heard.

AWU state secretary Stacey Schinnerl suspected the CFMEU escalated the turf war after sensing an opportunity to exert pressure on the union’s first female leader, leaving her feeling unsafe in her own home and fearing for her children’s safety.

During a hearing on Wednesday, she described a timeline of hostilities from the CFMEU, as the construction union tried to illegitimately recruit workers on major road, rail and tunnel projects.

CFMEU members surround an AWU organiser’s car at the Centenary Bridge upgrade site.

The powerful inquiry headed by Stuart Wood was launched by the Queensland government following reporting by this masthead and 60 Minutes into criminality, corruption and misconduct in the CFMEU and construction industry nationwide.

Schinnerl began her evidence laying out the CFMEU’s frustration about the AWU gaining standard “greenfield agreements” with contractor CPB on the state government’s multibillion-dollar Cross River Rail project in 2019.

The CFMEU had been hoping to land its own agreement relating to tunnelling work, despite not having membership coverage, Schinnerl said. Things picked up as CPB brought on subcontractors with CFMEU agreements to do certain work.

But the situation escalated in late 2022 after Schinnerl’s election to state AWU secretary, which she believes the CFMEU viewed as an opportunity.

“Perhaps a female [AWU] leader would be easy to roll. With enough pressure applied, I might just give up and give it to them,” Schinnerl said.

A second spark was provided when Schinnerl delivered a joke on stage at the state Labor Party conference in 2022.

The “quip”, about the CFMEU’s storming of the Department of Transport and Main Roads headquarters in Brisbane, prompted then-secretary Michael Ravbar to stage a loud walkout with his union’s delegation.

Following this, Schinnerl said she was told by multiple sources that Ravbar viewed her comments as her “starting a war”, with the CFMEU then instructing staff to “take down the AWU”.

“I think the CFMEU probably always had those plans, but I provided them an excuse,” she told the inquiry.

In her written witness statement tendered into evidence, Schinnerl revealed herself to be the union official described in CFMEU administration investigator Geoffrey Watson’s report as having experienced aggressive behaviour at a 2023 Labour Day event in Brisbane.

While setting up the AWU marquee, Schinnerl wrote of being confronted by a man in a CFMEU shirt with his face painted with the words “Australia’s Worst Union”.

AWU Queensland secretary Stacey Schinnerl.

The man tried to provoke a response and Schinnerl’s efforts to get him to leave left the pair “chest to chest”. He then turned to one of her 13-year-old sons standing beside her and said: “How does it feel to know that your mum is a f---in’ grub who sells out workers?”

During the interaction, the AWU leader said she pleaded with the man, saying: “This is my child. Do not do this here. Leave.”

Schinnerl said then CFMEU assistant state secretary Jade Ingham was “standing about 30 metres away watching the confrontation” and “made no attempt to call him away” before security arrived soon after.

She was then followed out of the venue by men in CFMEU shirts, likely members of the “youth crew” – one of whom denied following her after she turned and confronted him.

Schinnerl wrote in her statement that the conduct of the CFMEU had taken a significant personal toll, leaving her at times feeling unsafe in her own home.

“I am particularly concerned about the safety and wellbeing of my children and the impact this has had on them,” she said.

“I have provided this statement not because I wish to make myself a bigger target than I already am, but because I believe in the importance of the union movement, and because the sort of conduct I (and others) have been exposed to tarnishes the whole [union] movement.”

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