Workers strike on billion dollar resort development

Around 800 construction workers on a $1.4 billion high rise resort development in Surfers Paradise voted to down tools on 3 October. The strike is about job security on the Jewel Resort project after 150 workers were told that they were no longer needed.

A dispute between the developer, Yuhu Group, and the builder, Multiplex, about the resort’s hotel building, has led to the suspension of work at the site. There are concerns that as many as 900 further jobs are at risk.

According to the CFMMEU Queensland branch assistant state secretary, Jade Ingham, the developer has refused to meet with the union. “There is a veil of secrecy. All we are told at the moment is there is a kind of redesign afoot for a hotel operator. So we have asked the question, if the hotel is only one of three towers, then why has work stopped in all three towers?”

The Gold Coast Mayor, Tom Tate, has chimed in to defend the company’s right to lay off workers while it fiddles with building designs. The union is demanding that the developer meet to address its concerns.