A controversial union organiser has come under fire for inflammatory posts he made online, including labelling Anthony Albanese a ‘Nazi’ and branding an ex-female colleague a ‘s*** c***’.
Paul Ferreira, who was sacked by the CFMEU in 2020, is currently an organiser with the Western Mine Workers’ Alliance in WA.
He is reportedly spearheading efforts to push for collective bargaining, which is allowed under the Federal Government’s new industrial relations laws, at mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP.
The Albanese government has introduced changes which allow employees from different workplaces with similar interests to be covered under one enterprise bargaining agreement.
Mining companies and the Coalition have been critical of the changes, arguing that they hand too much power to militant unions.
And now BHP has complained to the Australian Workers’ Union about Mr Perreira after receiving ‘several complaints from members of our workforce’ following multiple visits to sites in the Pilbara region.
‘The behaviour displayed by the individual while visiting our Pilbara sites, including disrespectful and inappropriate language, fell well short of our Code of Conduct,’ a BHP spokesperson told the West Australian.
It comes as past derogatory comments made by Mr Ferreira have come to light, including allegedly homophobic and misogynistic slurs.
Paul Ferreira (pictured), who was sacked by the CFMEU in 2020, is currently an organiser with the Western Mine Workers Alliance in WA
He is reportedly spearheading efforts to push for collective bargaining, which is allowed under the Federal Government’s new industrial relations laws, at mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP
Mr Ferreira was ‘terminated’ by the CFMEU in July 2020 for reasons that are unclear.
After sharing an announcement about his sacking, Mr Ferreira got into a spat with a former female colleague who he labelled a ‘p*** taker’ and a s*** c***’.
When another woman attempted to call him out, he responded: ‘Who the f*** are you? That’s right, a nobody.’
In other exchanges with friends, he joked that one of them ‘just like(d) taking digits up your a**’, while he scolded another, saying: ‘someone needs to stick their d*** in your ear and f*** some sense into you’.
More recently, he has pledged to ‘p**s off as many bosses as possible’ in 2025, further noting that his ‘presence p***es off some like sand in vagina’.
The post was accompanied by an unprintable picture of a dog appearing to perform a sex act on a tyre.
‘Here’s to a f***ing good year,’ the accompanying caption read, referencing Goodyear tyres.
Underneath a post about how female miners were being offered $2 coffees on International Women’s Day, Mr Ferreira quipped: ‘I’m a lesbian trapped in a man’s body, does that qualify for the coffee discount?’
Even the Prime Minister, who is part of the Labor party’s left faction, does not escape Mr Ferreira’s wrath.
Defending his old employer, the CFMEU, Mr Ferreira asked for ‘proof’ that ‘bikies and crooks’ had infiltrated the union.
After sharing an announcement about his sacking, Mr Ferreira got into a spat with a former female colleague who he labelled a ‘pi** taker’ and a s**t c***’ (pictured)
In other exchanges with friends, he joked that one of them ‘just like(d) taking digits up your a**’, while he scolded another, saying: ‘someone needs to stick their d*** in your ear and f*** some sense into you’ (pictured)
Defending his old employer, the CFMEU, Mr Ferreira asked for ‘proof’ that ‘bikies and crooks’ had infiltrated the union – before labelling the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese a ‘nazi’
‘If their is (sic) any laws broken there is legal avenues to prosecute,’ he wrote in September last year.
‘To put a union into administration without laws broken is a nasty precedent AlboNazi has sent.’
In August last year, the Albanese government declared it was ‘in the public interest’ to put the CFMEU into administration amid allegations its construction arm was rife with corruption and links to criminal gangs.
There were reports of bikies acting as union delegates, including one official earning $250,000 a year as a health and safety officer.
The move resulted in 11 senior union officials across NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland branches losing their jobs, while 270 elected union officials were sacked from unpaid positions.
WA Premier Roger Cook slammed Mr Perreira’s comments as ‘disgusting’.
‘I’m disgusted by that sort of behaviour,’ Mr Cook told the paper.
‘We’ve been calling out this sort of ridiculous race driven behaviour for some time now, and for a member of a trade union to use that language in relation to the Prime Minister is quite frankly disgusting.’
A spokesperson for Mr Ferreira’s employer, the Western Mine Workers’ Alliance (WMWA) told the paper it ‘believes in upholding the values of civility’.
‘This has been made very clear to Mr Ferreira,’ the spokesperson added.
‘However, we also will not obediently dance to the tune of mining company corporate dirt units who would like to use some instances of unacceptable language as an excuse to get rid of a union organiser they know is effective and popular.’
Mr Ferreira has subsequently deleted some of the offensive posts.
Daily Mail Australia approached Mr Ferreira, the WMWA and the CFMEU WA for further comment.