Tunnel workers set up trust for dead colleague’s family

October 3rd, 2011

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Brisbane’s Airport Link tunnel takes shape. Photo: Glenn Hunt

The Airport Link tunnelling team has launched a campaign to financially help the family of a colleague who died on Saturday after being struck by a beam on the site.

Hundreds of co-workers will give one day’s pay to the trust account for the man’s family, and Thiess John Holland will also contribute, according to project director Gordon Ralph.

The 40-year-old employee was an incredibly well known and respected member of the tunnelling team and his death had affected a huge number of his colleagues, Mr Ralph said.

“This [campaign] is a great initiative by the tunnelling crew which demonstrates the close bond between the guys, and the high regard they all have for their colleague,” he said in a statement issued this afternoon.

The entire project team will observe a minute’s silence on Thursday morning in honour of their colleague

Mr Ralph reiterated no work was taking place on the giant infrastructure project today out of respect for the worker who died on Saturday after being struck by a beam on Thursday.

Electrical Trades Union spokesman Peter Ong said he drove past the site at Kedron, in the city’s north, about 6am today and saw about 50 employees on site.

‘‘They put that [the site was closed] out in a press release, but if you flew over the job you would see 50 to a 100 people working, mostly at Kedron,” he said.

“‘We are pissed off and I can guarantee you the rest of the workforce will be pissed off at the meeting tomorrow morning.’’

However Airport Link denied any construction work was taking place.

“We called them in for the regular ‘pre-start’ meeting at 6am to let them know about the Trust Fund that had been set up for the worker’s family and that is all,” the Airport Link spokesperson said.

“There will be no construction work as a mark of respect. There is just a skeleton staff here doing office work, HR staff setting up the Trust Fund and us doing media inquiries and that sort of thing.”

Work on the project will re-commence tomorrow.

The deceased man had been involved in dismantling smoke duct tables inside the southbound tunnel.

At the time of the accident, he was cutting the structure on the ground when it weakened, causing a beam to fall on him.

The accident prompted hundreds of workers to stage a protest march over safety concerns on Friday.

Two workers were burnt this month when fire broke out in the tunnel.

The workers are due to meet tomorrow, with the union calling for a health and safety audit before any further ‘‘productive work’’ takes place.

– with AAP

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