Idealism in action: an example of how a union saved Sydney's historic buildings..

The Builder's Labourers Federation in Sydney refused to demolish many historic buildings. In three years they placed green bans on 42 developments worth 5,000 million dollars, and so stopped developers razing the historic Rocks, much of Victoria Street in Kings Cross as well as Woolloomooloo. Jack Mundey was the Secretary of the NSW Branch of the BLF during the green ban period.

Jack Mundey: The time, look at the time. The time was the 60s. It was the time of the Vietnam War. We were opposed to the Vietnam War. We were the first union to bring down blacks and take them round the building sites get support when they went on strike at Garingee up in the Northern Territory. We fought at the time of the referendum, we fought for the right of the disgraceful position where our indigenious people were neglected. We fought for the rights of those people for that referendum. We were involved in all of those movements which I think made the union different.

..At the time there was a notion that all development was good and the thinking segment of the population started to question this. When heritage building after heritage building was razed to the ground, when people were turfed out of their homes to make way for high rise development, when whole communities were effected there was a changing nation. And having in mind that in the 60s and 70s at one stage there was something like four to five hundred resident action groups and they were part of the community. Those resident action groups and the environmentalists and the builder's labourers linking up together were a very potent force. And so, had it just been the Builder's Labourers on their own, we could never have achieved that.

But we had widespread support across the whole political spectrum. .. So, it was this dichotomy and this new dimension of people's concern for the environment that put the built environment on the agenda. Before the green bans there was a notion that the environment was the preserve of the better educated, well to do or middle upper classes and mainly about forests, or lakes or about the Barrier Reef of things like. Nature conservation.

But of course the point is that we are one of the most urbanised countries on earth. So the damage that this was doing to the city, this over development was doing to the city, the progressive segment of the population were right on side with the green ban, and were really instrumental in the green ban.

.. even though it was a small union we had a high level of union membership. Say 95% of all workers working as builder's labourers were in a union and also having in mind that we were the ones that did all the demolition. A building couldn't be demolished unless builder's labourers went on. Conversely, when the first footings of a new building commenced we were the ones in the bowels of the earth digging up and putting those footings in place. So we had enormous bargaining power as to the demolition of buildings and the building of buildings.

.. the Builder's Labourers even now 30 years on, 25 years on, are so respected because of the legacy that they left.

Jack Mundey is now the Chairman of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s18145.htm