Non-stop chicken emojis texted to a construction project manager's phone rendered it useless and were part of a union's harassment campaign, an inquiry has heard.
Joe Barker, a senior project manager for the Georgiou group that built Queensland's Exit 41 motorway interchange, gave evidence on Tuesday to the Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU.
He described a 2023 "chickenwire" campaign by the union after it demanded two metres of wire mesh to go above a new bridge railing when contractors deemed a lower height would do.
Commissioner Stuart Wood KC was shown a video posted on Facebook including a doctored image of Barker holding a chicken and with chickens on his head and shoulder.
Barker then started getting multiple phone calls and texts asking about free chicken coops advertised on Gumtree with his mobile phone number included.
"You were bombarded with calls and messages inquiring about free chicken coops," counsel assisting Eddy Gisonda KC asked Barker who confirmed his number was used without his permission.
The commission also heard that when he walked past two union members on site one day they were playing chicken noises on a phone and laughing.
Weeks later, in May 2023, Barker began receiving text messages with multiple lines of chicken emojis, comprising over 500 single messages including 70 in one morning, rendering his phone useless.
It was relentless, childish and disruptive, he told the commission.
"If that's not harassment I don't know what is."
It was obviously part of an orchestrated campaign and the union harassment tactics did impact the timing and conduct of the project, Barker said.
On Tuesday the commission also heard of a CFMEU official's demand for barbecues every Friday for hundreds of construction workers at the Cross River Rail Project.
Site manager Justin Bishop, for contractor CPB, detailed a confrontation with CFMEU delegate Richie Atutolu in October 2024.
The dispute at a pre-start staff meeting moved on to Bishop being asked why he was not providing site barbecues for the entire workforce every Friday.
"I said, 'we don't have a budget to supply barbecues to 400 men or 600 men every Friday. It's just not going to happen'," he told the commission.
It escalated from there with Atutolu becoming aggressive towards another worker, telling him, "If you want a mouth off, let's go for a walk" and "Get the f*** up".
Atutolu was sacked as CPB's union-appointed safety representative after the confrontation.
Bishop also revealed that up to 400 workers at the site were forced to stop work over a three millimetre puddle of water.
CFMEU officials said workers could not walk through the puddles.
"That's the sort of stuff you deal with," Bishop told the inquiry.
"Four hundred or 350 men sitting in the shed over a genuine safety concern of three millimetres of water on the ground."
The inquiry is expected to hear from up to 30 witnesses during October's block of hearings.
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