‘Threat on my life’: Key union leader details CFMEU pressure campaign

Queensland’s key civil construction union leader said she received a death threat from the CFMEU amid an aggressive campaign to push the Australian Workers Union from major projects, an inquiry into the union heard.

AWU state secretary Stacey Schinnerl said she was also told by a representative of major government project contractor CPB that his firm would not assist her or her officials accessing contested Cross River Rail sites under CFMEU blockade.

During a hearing on Wednesday, she described the construction union’s efforts to illegitimately recruit workers on road, rail and tunnel projects, and exert pressure on her as the union’s first female leader, leaving her fearing for her children’s safety.

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 believed 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.

After a worker was critically injured in a fall from height on a Cross River Rail site in July 2023, a “safety reset” took place in which the AWU was at one stage excluded by CFMEU-led motions.

In the aftermath, an AWU organiser was blocked from entering one site by CFMEU members who surrounded his car, showed him a weapon and deflated his car tyres. Another AWU delegate was later prevented from entering by masked CFMEU members.

Schinnerl said her officials were told to pass on a message that “if I stick my head up it will get knocked off”.

“I took that to be a threat on my life,” Schinnerl said, telling the inquiry she was unsure if CPB or police were made aware of the incidents.

Later that week at CPB’s offices, Schinnerl met with managing director Jason Spears, chief operating officer Don Johnson, then-CFMEU leaders Michael Ravbar and Jade Ingham, along with other relevant unions.

Schinnerl said the contractor “acceded to almost all of the demands” formulated by the CFMEU at an earlier public rally which amounted to a “free for all” of the union’s organisers to enter the site without permits and did not seem to relate to the relevant safety issues.

She was then told “outrageously” by Johnson when asked how he could help AWU access sites, that “what happens outside the gate is not my problem, I’m not getting involved”.

Ravbar and Ingham smirked after Johnson’s response, Schinnerl told the inquiry.

In her written witness statement, 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, Schinnerl wrote of being confronted by a man in a CFMEU shirt with his face painted with the words “Australia’s Worst Union”.

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 Ingham was “standing about 30 metres away watching the confrontation” and “made no attempt to call him away” before security arrived soon after.

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

Inquiry hearings will continue on Thursday.

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