Thursday, 5 October 2023

 Luba GRIGOROVITCH (Kororoit) (09:55): I rise to mark the recent passing of Boze Setka, or Bob, as he was known to his mates, a proud migrant from Croatia and an even prouder member of the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) who spent his working life in the construction industry. Bob was an ironworker and rigger building the monumental West Gate Bridge when, on 15 October 1970, he went to work not knowing the impact on our history that day would have when the West Gate Bridge collapsed in Australia’s worst industrial accident, killing 35 workers. Bob miraculously survived the collapse, riding the bridge span down before being thrown into Stony Creek mud. In Bob’s own words:

I looked around and thought to myself, oh, my God, I’m still alive.

Bob rushed to the aid of his workmates and was the last of 18 survivors on that day. Bob’s strong and positive view of life meant that he returned to work on the bridge with his mates and never missed a West Gate Bridge memorial service.

The terrible lesson of the West Gate disaster and Bob’s own life is that strong unions are absolutely vital to enforcing workers’ minimum health and safety on the job and saving lives. The bosses will never do it. Bob stood staunchly by his union in the BLF fight against deregistration in the 1980s until the union later became part of the construction and general division of the mighty CFMEU. He instilled values of unionism and standing together with your fellow workers, including in his family and in his son and my brother John Setka, who is now the Victorian state secretary of the CFMEU. My heartfelt condolences go to Bob’s widow Mila, John, Libby, David, Kate, Johnny, Luke, Mara and Bob’s many more loved ones and friends. Vale, Bob Setka.