THE Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union is gearing up for a major fight with the Rudd government in an election year -- over toilet paper.

The CFMEU has called on the government to take action over hundreds of millions of rolls of cheap Chinese and Indonesian toilet paper being dumped in the Australian market.

The union is furious at a decision by federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland to remove anti-dumping duties that had been slapped on the toilet paper, sold in the Australian market at up to 40 per cent below the cost price.

The decision came after an appeal for an investigation by Customs against the anti-dumping duties by a number of companies, including Woolworths.

Customs found the toilet paper had been dumped in Australia, causing injury to local businesses, including loss of market share, but that the injury was not "material".

The national secretary of the CFMEU's forestry division, Michael O'Connor, wrote to Mr McClelland yesterday arguing that the decision was unfair and unreasonable, and had threatened the jobs, wages and conditions of Australian workers.

"If even just one job is lost due to the anti-dumping duties being removed, injury is not immaterial or without consequence," he wrote.

In his letter, Mr O'Connor warned that the CFMEU -- which wreaked havoc on Mark Latham's 2004 election campaign after he vowed to end logging in Tasmania's old-growth forests -- would be raising its concerns "in all possible forums".

He said he believed the report to Mr McClelland was "seriously flawed" because it concluded the impact was not material to the local paper industry.

Mr O'Connor said the decision was inconsistent with Labor's policy to take strong anti-dumping action and "beggared belief", coming as the government was implementing other measures to support manufacturing.

"We expect the government to step up and protect Australian workers from dumping," he said.

"The bottom line is that even free-trade zealots do not support dumping because it is an uncompetitive practice and not a true reflection of market forces."

An Attorney-General's Department spokesman said the Customs reinvestigation found the injuries were not material, which was a requirement for imposing dumping duties, and that domestic competition was the culprit.