Police shut down roads for what unions described as a “peaceful” march through Brisbane’s streets to the office of Liberal MP Ken O’Dowd, who was not in town to address the protestors.

The rally was organised by the Electrical Trades Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, Australian Workers Union, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and Maritime Union of Australia.

Allen Hicks, national secretary of the ETU, which successfully took Bechtel to the Federal Court last Friday to free employees to attend, called the ChAFTA a “dud deal” despite insisting that the unions were “not opposed” to trade liberalisation.

Hicks said ChAFTA would allow companies to undercut the wages and conditions of Australian workers by exploiting overseas labour, and would “take opportunities away from Australian workers and food off the table of their families.

“It undermines our safety, our prosperity and our standards,” he said, adding that the strong turnout was indicative of community concerns about the impact of the agreement.

“The Abbott government negotiated this agreement in secret behind closed doors. They thought they could put one past the Australian people,” Hicks said.

“But as working Australians around the country find out what the government has signed away they are rightly horrified.

“I encourage everyone to go out into the communities – to the universities, the pubs and clubs, their workplaces and their sports clubs – and speak about this rotten agreement.”

The rally is one of a series of events that a coalition of unions has planned around the country. The next will take place in Darwin on Sunday, August 23, followed by Perth on August 25, which is the day after the Federal Court will hear the substantive matters of the case heard last Friday.

Bechtel told ICN sister publication Energy News it has never had any position on ChAFTA.