BEN HARVEY: The similarities between a well-run outlaw motorcycle gang and a militant blue-collar union

For more than a week now, we’ve been told that bikies have infiltrated the CFMEU.

This is wrong.

Infiltration implies outlaw gang members covertly enmeshed themselves without union officials knowing about it; the reality is these guys were welcomed with open arms.

Why wouldn’t you want the underworld in your corner when you’re renegotiating an enterprise agreement?

Show me an HR manager who’s sweating when they turn the ignition key and I’ll show you someone willing to a down-tools clause should it get hotter than 33C.

Bikies make excellent unionists. There are a lot of similarities between a well-run outlaw motorcycle gang and a militant blue-collar union.

Being staunch is a coveted character trait by unionists and bikies alike.

They both have to pay their dues once they sign up (most bikie gangs charge around $50 a week, which is a fair whack more than you’re expected to cough up at the construction union) and they are both expected to attend all-in events (bikies call this “church” and unions call them “stop-work meetings”).

Unions and bikie gangs both love a show of force and don’t like ladies to be part of the gang (a CFMEU rally is just as much of a sausage-fest as a bikie clubhouse).

They both like to get their punch on and are contemptuous of the justice system.

Most obviously, unions and bikies often employ similar negotiation tactics (remember that scene from Casino where Joe Pesci had the guy’s head in a vice?).

It’s been suggested over the past week that the CFMEU is regretting letting bikies sign up.

Again, this is incorrect.

Suspended from the Labor Party? Boohoo, that just means a lot of money retained in CFMEU bank accounts instead of going to pay for ALP political campaigns.

Anthony Albanese, who has been clutching his pearls at the thought there might be corruption in union ranks, had the audacity to act shocked at the past week’s revelations.

Give me a break Albo, the underworld’s had a construction ticket since the days of the Builders Labourers Federation!

In the 1970s, NSW BLF boss Jack Mundey was neck deep with gangsters!

We got a bit of an insight when his one-time lover Juanita Nielsen disappeared after a meeting at the Carousel Nightclub in Kings Cross.

The Carousel was owned by Abe Saffron. You don’t need to join too many dots to appreciate how Mr Sin got his nickname.

The industrial relations landscape has been littered with gangsters for decades.

Mick Gatto openly describes himself as a building industry mediator, for God’s sake.

So does Tom Domican, and Tom makes Mick look like Rodd and Todd from the Simpsons

Tough Tommy, as Domican is known, was part of Australia’s most infamous jailhouse fight, going bare knuckles for a full 10 minutes with hulking convicted murderer Neddy Smith in what became known as the “Battle of Long Bay”.

Domican, that harbinger of industrial peace, was charged twice with the murder of Sydney underworld legend Christopher Dale Flannery.

You don’t need to join too many dots to appreciate how Mr Rentakill got his nickname.

Flannery was Australia’s most sought-after professional hitman. He had 12 kills to his name and the authorities would have had us believe Domican didn’t flinch at the idea of icing him.

He beat the murder rap after appealing to the High Court. I don’t know what Domican’s argument was but it was clearly more convincing than “the vibe” because the cops thought they had him cold.

Guess what Tough Tommy did before he was an industrial relations mediator?

Political numbers man.

Guess which party?

The ALP.

And Albo is acting shocked. Spare me.