The CFMEU has lost an appeal to have secondary boycott proceedings over alleged bans on Boral delayed until after the hearing of blackmail charges against union leaders John Setka and Shaun Reardon.
The Fair Work Commission's general manager has launched an inquiry into the actions of former leaders of the CFMEU construction and general division's NSW branch, after the Heydon Royal Commission referred the matter to the tribunal.
The Federal Court has found that the CFMEU unlawfully coerced construction joint venturers when it threatened to take industrial action on a "national scale" and bring about "Armageddon" if they sought to enforce an anti-strike order.
The HSU's NSW branch says it will clear the debt generated by its corrupt former leadership within two-and-a-half-years, thanks in part to an aggressive savings strategy and a new recruitment focus in aged care and private health, as it prepares to reveal a substantial donation to the ALP to fight the Coalition's "draconian" attack on unions.
The Federal Court has imposed a $76,500 penalty on the musicians' union and $17,000 on its former general secretary for breaching financial reporting requirements for the union's national, Melbourne and Sydney branches from 2007 until late 2012.
Proceedings brought by FSU national secretary Fiona Jordan against her union have returned to the Fair Work Commission, as an internal power struggle continues.
The Turnbull Government is seeking to make a direct link between the Heydon Royal Commission's findings and the ABCC legislation that looks set to be a double-dissolution trigger, but there is no concrete policy connection between the two, according to a leading IR academic.
