Blacklisted workers have voiced their concerns about a potential ‘cover up’ of union involvement in blacklisting. The Blacklist Support Group issued a statement on its facebook page in which the justice campaign for blacklisted union members from the construction industry called for “union officials involved in blacklisting union members to be publicly named and shamed – irrespective of who wins the UNITE the union General Secretary election”.
The statement is a response to the current flood of inquiries about the ongoing Independent Blacklisting Collusion Inquiry. The KC led investigation was set up by Sharon Graham in 2021 to investigate allegations of union officials colluding with major employers to blacklist union members. The inquiry was set up after more than a decade of campaigning by union members who were blacklisted by the UK’s major construction employers – and who read the names of some union officials recorded as the source of the information on their blacklist files.
The Inquiry lawyers – Nick Randall KC, John Townsend and Paul Heron – have taken oral evidence, statements and collated documentary evidence from over 100 witnesses. The inquiry has also carried out a forensic search of UNITE (and its predecessor unions) electronic databases. In 2025, Nick Randall spoke at UNITE Policy conference, telling delegates that:
“we have been chosen for our independence, and we have had absolutely no interference whatsoever from the union…
… based on the terms of reference set out by the union, we are looking at whether past or present officers or officials of the union UNITE, colluded in blacklisting in the construction industry… not limited only to obvious direct collusion but also to the suppression of information about the operation of such blacklists by union officials”
Randall ended by telling the conference that he was confident that the report would be finished within a few months. It is now a whole year since that statement. [Full speech].
We have been told that the report should be finished soon, but further information has come to light which means that Randall’s hopeful deadline was not achievable. The inquiry assures us that they are making every effort to resolve the issues arising from that information as soon as possible, but have emphasised that, given its importance, they must investigate this line of inquiry prior to completing the report.
As part of the inquiry, an ‘Oversight Committee’ was established compromising of Dave Smith, Frank Morris and Tony Seaman (all of whom have been blacklisted for their union activities). The purpose of the oversight committee was to ensure that the inquiry remained independent from the union, and to assist the inquiry lawyers where necessary, such as identifying potential witnesses. The oversight committee added the following comments to the BSG statement:
“For the past five years we have refrained from making public comments about the collusion inquiry. This was at the direct request of the lawyers who felt any remarks by us could hamper their ongoing investigations. Keeping quiet about the inquiry has not come easy to us. We have repeatedly voiced our frustrations to the lawyers in private – when our natural inclination has been to shout our concerns to the rooftops – but we have kept faith in the lawyers’ honesty and professionalism. However, in the past few weeks rumours have been circulating on social media that demand a definitive statement from the Oversight Committee and the Blacklist Support Group.
We understand that the evidence the inquiry has received is not limited to entries on the Economic League and Consulting Association blacklists, but also includes documentary evidence and witness testimony of unacceptable practices that existed within the construction industry over decades. When the inquiry completes its report, if substantial evidence exists that union officers and some union officials colluded in blacklisting their own members, practices that should have no place in any independent democratic trade union, we would expect that any union member with the best interests of trade unionism at heart will want to expose any such wrongdoing or corruption.
We are therefore calling on all candidates in the UNITE general secretary election, and all those actively campaigning for them, to unconditionally pledge to publish the Independent Blacklisting Collusion Inquiry report in full, and where there is robust evidence of wrongdoing, those union officers or officials should be named and shamed. The findings and recommendations should be made public and acted on by the union: so that the stain of union collusion in blacklisting can be finally wiped clean.
We are not calling for a witch hunt – where there is no evidence of wrongdoing, officials should be exonerated and be able to hold their heads high. We should all strive for natural justice – but blacklisted workers have been waiting too long for justice”.
Blacklist Support Group
book: http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcgrNs6pB8
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/
blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog