Uncertainty shrouds what penalties CFMEU officials will face and when the union will be taken over by an external administrator as laws to force compliance stall.
Business groups are urging the opposition and Greens to immediately pass legislation giving the minister the power to install an administrator to the CFMEU's construction and general division following allegations of criminal links.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox called for administration "to clean up what has become a cancer on our economy and on the union movement itself".
He rejected calls by the opposition to deregister the union "which simply allows the union to operate in a deregulated form" or for another elongated inquiry which would only delay action.
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie was scathing of the coalition's push for an inquiry into the legislation before the Senate, saying nothing new would come of it and it would only delay action.
"I'd be looking forward to having the Comancheros sitting in front of me and the Rebels because you won't get witnesses coming forward," she said in reference to outlaw motorcycle gangs.
"They're scared ... they've got lives, they've got families."
She called for an end to political grandstanding from the opposition and a timely takeover of the construction union "to finally send these bully boys where they need to be".
Independent senator David Pocock also called for the laws to be passed promptly, but noted there were some issues to work through.
Labor's laws - which it wants passed by Thursday - would enable the minister to appoint an administrator and slap substantial fines and jail time on union officials who obstruct or frustrate the process.
The Greens have flagged working with the government to pass amended legislation rather than teaming up with the opposition to flick it to another inquiry.
But negotiations have stalled in what the government wanted to be a painless process with initial hopes the bill would sail through the Senate by Tuesday.
Opposition workplace relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash called Labor's laws weak, saying the process was akin to "the fox ... guarding the hen house".
"You dump a piece of legislation in this place and you then demand, with no scrutiny, for us to put it through," she told the Senate as she expressed ire at the rushed process.
Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt branded it "more delay tactics and political games", saying the opposition and Greens had argued for the need to clean up work sites and had the opportunity to do so.
"All Australians are really disturbed by the constant revelations that keep on coming out, including more today about thuggery, bullying, intimidation and in its worst examples, criminality and corruption," he told reporters in Canberra.
"The last thing we need at the moment is another longstanding review or inquiry to look into issues that have been going on for a long time and that have been inquired into to death."
