The building union workers who rallied in capital cities around the nation on Tuesday are right to be angry, but their anger at the Labor Party, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the ACTU is misdirected.

It’s the CFMEU bosses, such as John Setka, Darren Greenfield and Derek Christopher, who have betrayed union members.

These three union leaders are the ones who have weakened the union – and, by extension, its ability to negotiate pay rises and protect worker safety.

John Setka’s domestic violence-related behaviour risked turning the union branch he led in Victoria into a pariah, while his decision to let bikies and underworld figures into CFMEU ranks guaranteed it. Why does the latter matter?

Case study after case study, including the example of Synergy Scaffolding published by this masthead on Monday, has shown how union-backed firms with underworld links rip off workers and compromise their safety.

When alliances between the underworld and the union are finally revealed, as with our earlier revelations that plunged the CFMEU into crisis and administration, governments are compelled to act.

If Setka had focused on running a clean union rather than a branch infested with self-interested cliques (there are bikie union sub-factions as well as other groupings), it wouldn’t have changed the union’s militancy and ability to demand pay rises.

That power rests on the union’s unique ability to disrupt building projects. Had Setka stuck to that, he would........

© Brisbane Times