A grief-stricken mother, crushed family, and injured worker will vouch for the good work of construction union in Canberra this week.
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Thousands of pamphlets detailing tragic deaths and a life-changing injury on the territory's construction sites are expected to begin arriving in the mailboxes of Canberra from Tuesday.
The leaflets distribution comes as the Canberra leg of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption has heard allegations of corrupt payments, standover and intimidation tactics, and the promotion of cartels in the territory's building sector.
But the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union snubbed the opening day on Monday, pledging to boycott the commission until about Thursday in protest at what it said was a lack of procedural fairness at the start of proceedings.
The letter drop is an unfiltered, direct approach to households by the CMFEU to detail the good work it has done for workers in Canberra.
In one letter, grieving widow Fiona Vickery details the support she received from the union after her husband Wayne was killed when struck by a grader on a Macgregor construction site in 2011.
"The CFMEU reached out to us from day one," she wrote in the letter.
"They were there when the police visited our home in Yass on that awful day, and they are still with us today."
Kay Catanzariti, mother of concreter Ben, 21, who died in Kingston after he was struck by a concrete boom, said the union helped organise counselling, legal advice, transport, accommodation, and compensation.
"The guys still ring us occasionally to say hello, and see how we are going," Mrs Catanzariti wrote.
Jayson Bush's life changed in October 2012, when he fell 6.5 metres down an airconditioning vent onto a concrete floor at the Nishi apartment complex in Civic.
The fall broke his back and five ribs, punctured his lung, dislocated his shoulder, and injured his head.
"If I didn't have the CFMEU in my corner, I don't know … I might not even be here," Mr Bush wrote.
"Nowadays, I find myself being a CFMEU advocate to guys who don't understand it."
Last week, Safe Work Australia revealed ACT construction sites are the most dangerous in Australia, with the highest rate of serious injury claims.
The report said there were 29 serious injury claims per 1000 workers in the territory during 2012-13, compared with just 12.9 in Victoria.
