G'Day From Downunder

How are you doing? Did the mother-in-law drop in to see you last week?

Last week I sat down to have a chat with Martin Bingham an extraordinary man who came to Australia in 1955 and like most of those who came here from the Emerald Isle he also has made an impact on this nation.

Familiar Irish names that first come to mind are John Curtin a former Prime Minister of Australia between 1941 and 1945, whose father came from Dromahane near Mallow in County Cork. Another is Daniel Mannix born in Charleville, Co. Cork in 1864, who was ordained in Maynooth in 1890 and later became Archbishop of Melbourne where he served for 46 years before dying at the age of ninety-nine and eight months.

Mannix became an advocate for trade unionism and workers rights and that is where this Martin Bingham story kicks in, as he also had the same vision for workers rights.

The kettle goes on for coffee and we talk of old times.

Now retired and a doting grandfather, Martin enjoys his weekly games of golf and a quiet beer. Born in 1943 in Belfast where the family lived in 75 Larkfield Road, he remembers a trouble free time and says he has no recollection of religious conflict whatsoever, it was a time when, you never had to lock the doors. "I can still remember we used to live in our wellington boots and I think I still have the rings of the top of them on my legs. We used to play cowboys in Stormont and go to the Holywood beach in summer to play there. Winter was the worst part of living in Ireland I can still remember we would walk down the railway lines looking for coal for the fire, as we used to have icy cold days and nights".

Martin's mother worked for the Belfast Rope Works making fishermen's nets and sometimes she would travel down south to The Republic to pick potatoes. Like many of the men in Ireland at the time, his dad was a master of shoving pints down his throat instead of putting food on the table.

Martin's dad was a Shop Steward with the Harlem & Woolf Ship Builders yards as was his grandfather. His dad was a socialist who fought for the rights for catholic boys to be employed as apprentices, at H&W. That was the time when the policy of no catholics was in force and many a strike he caused because of his beliefs in their rights to be able to work there. He remembers the meetings his dad and his socialist friends would have in our kitchen every Friday night when the kids would have to go out and play in the street, while the police would be watching the house thinking they were plotting something nasty. Yes, that was a time when the word socialist was taboo.

In 1955, Martin's mom and dad migrated to Australia bringing Martins other siblings Nora, David, Derek, Martins twin sister Marlene and his younger brother Alan who they called ABBA, on the scheme that is now referred to as the ten-pound tourist. Their new home in Oz was at the Brooklyn Migrant Hostel where the family shared a fourteen metre Nissan Shed (like the ones you see in an old war movie).

As a twelve year old with a strong Northern Ireland accent, communication was always going to be a problem and so it was in school, especially with the teachers who Martin says were cruel and sadistic to him. "I suppose I was never going to be an attentive student anyway because I felt uncomfortable there all the time". Fourteen months later the family moved to Broadmeadows in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

As soon as he was fourteen, he went to work at R B Stephens in Burke Street as a cleanup and delivery boy getting paid thirty shillings and six pence a week, that wouldn't buy you a half pint of beer or a cup of coffee today. In 1961, his dad got him a job in the building industry, he worked on the construction of the Altona Oil Refinery, and by the time he was 18, he got his first job as a Shop Steward working on the King Street bridge site. That was a time when work safety was non-existing and it was normal to hear of four or five deaths a week.

On the 15th of October 1970, while the Westgate Bridge was being built over the Yarra River it collapsed killing thirty-five men, most of whom were Irish. In 1974, he started work on the rebuilding of the Westgate and there were still a lot of safety issues, there were men who had been drinking and smoking marijuana working on the job. Some men were being paid a lot more money than other men, who were working only metres away from them. Better conditions and pay for the builders had to be fought for and as a unionist, I was more than willing to be a major part of that fight. The building industry was not a good look and it didn't help with the blatant corruption that was also going on; sometimes it wasn't any less dramatic than a good old John Wayne knuckle duster, punch up. It would be only fair to say that sometimes the Union members would call a stop to a job for as little as wanting the developer to supply beer and a BBQ for the workers on a Friday. It was a very explosive time to be involved in the affairs of the building industry.

"As my dad and grandad were Shop Stewards, I guess I inherited the passion for the union movement from them".

In 1981, he worked as the first Health and Safety officer at the General Motors site, a sign of the times of improvement in the building trade.

While Martin was fighting to clean up the union affairs, from what he saw, as what was not in the best interest of its members, the then secretary Norm Gallagher had Martin black-banned. Martin struggled financially through a period of three years trying to pay off a home mortgage and keep a family fed while his opponent Norm had his henchmen block access to Martin's home and had them follow his wife Donna while she was dropping of their children to their school.

Then in 1985 the newspapers all over Australia were full of the internal fight for the secretary's job of the Builders Labourers Federation, with Martin Bingham in one corner and Norm Gallagher in the other. This was one of the biggest news events in the history of unionism in Australia. Norm wanted the union deregistered and the government they in turn wanted to deregister the union, because of so-called routing of member's funds by Norm.

Consequently, Norm spent some time reflecting on his deeds reading books behind bars and the government deregistered the union.

Martin continued in the union movement for another twenty years plus having stints as Assistant Secretary in the Construction, Forest, Mining, and Energy Union and with the Building Workers Industrial Union. He retired in 2008 after forty-seven years in one of the most demanding industries that anyone could work in.

"I would have loved to continue for another few years but I just wasn't happy with the new style of unionist, who only wanted to better themselves by using the trade union as a stepping stone into politics.

"I miss the humour of some of the characters that I've known over the years the ones that made the work fun. In addition, I would like to think I contributed to the industry that will benefit those who now work in it and hope those who follow in our footsteps appreciate the struggle the unions went through to give them the privileged position they enjoy today".

"I didn't get rich," he said, "but I got a lot of satisfaction out of my career".

Martin lives comfortably and happy with his wife Donna and their children are set up for life in professions they love and want to work in. He enjoys his golfing life now and is most important part in his life is, he can put his head down every night and sleep knowing he did the right thing at all times. Had Martin taken the less honourable road he would now have free green fees in his own four or five golf courses.

Martin married Donna on the 5th of August 1967 and said that was the best decision he ever made in his life, because she became the woman who saved his life. They live in the suburb of Frankston on the southern peninsula of Melbourne, better known as the birthplace of Jonny Logan the man who won The Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland three times.

Martin and Donna have three adult children, two sons Dean and Travis who carry on the family tradition both in the construction industry, looking after the welfare of the workers in health and safety. Their daughter Sherry works for the Ministry of Defence in the U.K.

Martin fills my coffee cup for the third time as I wrap up my computer for another tale in a couple of weeks. Until I talk to you again soon, be good to those who love you and Slainte from Downunder.

You can catch me on mbowen@afsvic.com.au