Blacklist blog

Blacklist Support Group supports 2 linked demands for the construction sector:

• #ShutTheSites – Close all non-essential building sites to keep workers and their families safe
• #PAYEveryworker – Ensure every worker gets paid to ensure their families are not put into destitution

Blame greedy bosses, clients and the government NOT the workers

The vast majority of construction workers are decent hardworking people. None of them want to put their own or their family members’ lives at risk by working in a situation where coronavirus infection is likely. Yet despite the apparent lockdown, photographs of packed building sites have been all over the media for days. When construction workers go to work, they share minibuses, travel on packed tubes, eat in crowded canteens, go up in full hoists, use palm print entry systems and live in barrack style accommodation on site. Construction is a dirty dangerous place at the best of times with notoriously poor welfare facilities, where the very process requires people to work in close proximity. Coronavirus will spread like wildfire in these circumstances.

Blame for this giant threat to public health lies with the greedy major contractors and clients continuing to enforce penalty clauses for delays; forcing building workers to come into work. Blame also lies with the government for not ordering all non-essential construction work to close. Ministers make speeches from lecterns emblazoned with the slogan ‘Stay Home Save Lives’ but building workers are still expected to go to work. There appears to have been orchestrated lobbying by the large contractors who are also major financial donors to the Tory Party. Its all about the money.

A culture of fear

There are also widespread reports of construction workers being sacked or told not to return to site if they complain or take the decision to leave unsafe sites. Construction News even reported workers being worried about blacklisting and being told to “F*ck Off, if you don’t like it”. One electrician in central London was sacked for gross-misconduct for posting a tweet about lack of social distancing.

As blacklisted building workers, we know from personal experience that the spectre of blacklisting is still very real in the construction industry. Big firms claim it’s a thing of the past but everyone knows it’s still going on. If safety reps get sacked, it’s no surprise that other workers keep their heads down. It’s a climate of fear that’s putting public health at risk.

Coronavirus Risk Assessment for the construction industry would highlight:

• Repeated prosecutions for breaches of H&S laws
• Blacklisting of safety reps by major contractors
• Workers being sacked where they complain abut safety
• Highest workplace fatality rates of any sector
• Intrinsically dirty work involving heavy lifting, often as a team
• Working in close proximity in confined spaces, hoists, scaffolds and trenches
• Often non-existent welfare facilities
• Almost universal bogus ‘self-employment’ where workers won’t be paid if they don’t come in

Using the Law

Every worker should stay safe and put their own and family member’s safety above the profits of their employer. Blacklist Support Group urge all concerned workers in non-essential workplaces to talk to your fellow workers and collectively approach the boss to keep staff safe. If management refuse to positively respond to reasonable requests, then legislation provides protection to employees who move themselves from an unsafe workplace.

Section 44 (1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, specifically states:

An employee has the right not to be subjected to any detriment by any act, or any deliberate failure to act, by his employer done on the ground that:

(d)in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent and which he could not reasonably have been expected to avert, he left (or proposed to leave) or (while the danger persisted) refused to return to his place of work or any dangerous part of his place of work, or

(e)in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent, he took (or proposed to take) appropriate steps to protect himself or other persons from the danger.

Using this health and safety law, coronavirus walkouts have already been organised in construction, factories, distribution depots, Royal Mail. In the US walkouts by autoworkers have closed car plants and in Italy and Switzerland the unions led strikes to close down non-essential workplaces. Construction workers do not want to be working, with the potential of brining the virus back home to their loved ones. The mood of the industry and the whole nation is to shut non-essential building sites.

Any union officials or safety reps who are negotiating with managers about how to keep non-essential workplaces open should first and foremost talk to their members about what they actually want to happen. Then reconsider whether continuing production is likely to ensure the safety of workers and their families, or primarily benefit the company financially. Any union perceived by the workers as siding with management to keep non-essential businesses open, may suffer a backlash if the overwhelming mood of the workforce is to stay safe at home.

‘Self-Employed’ Workers

However agency workers and anyone classified as self-employed are not covered by this legal protection. Employment law is stacked in favor of the employers. So rather than merely quoting the law, groups of workers should join a union and approach their boss collectively. This will increase the likelihood of success and decrease the chance of any victimization.

The majority of construction workers are also classified as self-employed, which means that if they decide to self-isolate they will not be paid by the firm they’re actually working for. If they go off sick, they won’t get sick pay. This allows the big firms to extert pressure on building workers who need money to put food on the table.

The government scheme for self-employed workers is a joke. No one gets a penny until June. How are people supposed to pay their bills? People have every right to keep a roof over their heads.The government position is changing by the day and concerted pressure can bring about further changes. Rather than the hopeless self-employed scheme or Universal Credit of £95 a week, it would be more useful if the government made universal income payments of around £1000 to everyone in the country (as has happened in Hong Kong).  No landlord or bank has a God given right to make a profit: the law of the land grants them that right, and the government can suspend that right. If the government suspended all rent, mortgage and interest payments for the next 3 months no one would be in fear of losing their home (as has happened in Italy).

Below is a short selection of the media coverage relating to the construction industry:

Dan Dobson on Radio 5 Live: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gmqp (starts at 21:29hrs)

Dan Dobson – Tribune article: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/03/coronavirus-crisis-exposes-construction-industrys-bogus-self-employment

Dave Smith: Morning Star article: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/o/covid-19-couldnt-be-more-dangerous-so-shut-construction-sites

Dave Smith at Coronavirus Support Group for Workers virtual meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT1YtAeu-SQ&t=16s

Construction News: https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/health-and-safety/onsite-coronavirus-cases-kept-secret-scared-workers-told-to-fk-off-31-03-2020/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&fbclid=IwAR1GduuF9SlkV7X4rQ93kMrCtqvt6S3uyeTI5Z8pTH8YHXtYJDXqiSS3BCo

Union News: https://www.union-news.co.uk/pressure-grows-on-government-to-shut-building-sites/?fbclid=IwAR00FKDIuhHB8uFJpRHvFUrwKM2SC5upNDGy5XcgSlLPwjgYMJjLB4Eb-E4

BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52017520

Construction donations to Tory Party: https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/tories-buouyed-by-construction-donations?fbclid=IwAR17aA1pMLIh99hg3HLqwDeqAeUIcHOjauoHrs3T0JE1h7Pl77AQ5ZBqDMk

Le Monde on Hinckley Point https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2020/03/31/nucleaire-sur-le-chantier-d-hinkley-point-les-travaux-continuent_6035068_3234.html?fbclid=IwAR2FU_GHX2XUbRehVmuK2s-BKzg5vwJrc5zmq4eFdWUMrcdfF5jRhkv9Iro

UNITE Appeal for evidence: https://www.union-news.co.uk/unite-issues-appeal-for-evidence-of-over-crowded-construction-sites/?fbclid=IwAR1iY5EBhNk4F-rlKvFuV-vSqAZ-ETLzfgSrox4DPaGL-ikoVHJP3HHp3XY

Punk Poet Steve White has even given the hashtag #ShutTheSites its own theme tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU1js5bmHnA

https://www.metro.news/construction-staff-cannon-fodder-claim-in-sites-row/1957057/?fbclid=IwAR3A6x01VTLNG9qpsQekZ1uS0oyNuPISPkO9OH5ixHJxfdPAVcRESoMkLPw

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/03/26/turn-up-on-site-or-else-majors-turn-screw-on-subcontractors/?fbclid=IwAR10WIH1NFvncdOX3ZiER6y2_1t34PQsTlibZMBgK4H5dAymss7hckBpbsI

https://unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2020/march/mccluskeys-call-to-chancellor-end-bogus-self-employment-to-make-your-support-scheme-work/

https://citizentruth.org/the-strike-wave-is-in-full-swing-amazon-whole-foods-workers-walk-off-job-to-protest-unjust-and-unsafe-labor-practices/?fbclid=IwAR1CLhVxpkaiagVQ-ks3cSmQkultqqrWyLA5gKWJE2Z2r509QCp-JhEGX4I

Stay Safe & Keep the Faith

 

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

Blacklist Support Group news release

On Wednesday 6 March 2019, the 10th Anniversary of the building industry blacklist being exposed, a newly released police report proves that the police shared information with the blacklist over decades.

Major construction firms such as Sir Robert McAlpine, Carillion and Balfour Beatty funded the now notorious Consulting Association and the Economic League to spy on and deny work to union members who raised concerns about safety.

The Creedon Report into Operation Reuben, the internal police investigation into blacklisting was disclosed by the Metropolitan Police to lawyers representing the Blacklist Support Group, because of there core participant status in the public inquiry into undercover policing.

The key findings of the 70 page report include admissions that:

•  “Police, including Special Branches and the Security Services supplied information to the blacklist funded by the country’s major construction firms, The Consulting Association”  (para 4.2)
• “Special Branches throughout the UK had direct contact with the Economic League” (para 13.1.2)
• The Metropolitan Police Special Branch Industrial Unit spied on union members “from teaching to the docks, attending conferences, and protests personally, and also developing well placed confidential contacts” (para 6.11)
• Undercover police officer Mark Jenner, who infiltrated the construction union UCATT gathered intelligence on “over 300 individuals”  (para 11.8.3)
• Another police unit, the National Extremism and Tactical Coordination Unit (NETCU) gave a PowerPoint presentation to a meeting of the Consulting Association (11.6.6)
• Police sharing information with big business and other bodies about prospective employees continues to this day through the Industrial Liaison Section within the National Domestic Extremism Unit (para 11.1.17)

Roy Bentham, joint secretary of Blacklist Support Group, commented:  “The police are supposed to uphold law and order, not spy on perfectly democratic organisations such as trade unions. Blacklisting is a national scandal and confirmation that the police colluded with this shameful and unlawful activity is beyond the pale.

“Justice demands a full stand alone public inquiry into this disgraceful human rights conspiracy between big business and the UK’s political police.”

Imran Khan QC, lawyer for the Blacklist Support Group at the undercover policing public inquiry, commented: “This report is official confirmation of a process which many workers in the construction industry knew or suspected was going on for a long time.

“Many thousands of  lives were ruined as a result of what can only be described as deplorable conduct on the part of the police. The UCPI has duty to now dig even deeper to discover the true extent of what the police did and hold them to account for their actions.”

•  Blacklist Support Group 10th anniversary parliamentary meeting, 5pm Wednesday 6 March 2019, Committee Room 10, Houses of Parliament

Confirmed speakers:

• John McDonnell MP
• Imran Khan QC
• Gail Cartmail AGS Unite the union
• ‘Alison’ ex-partner of undercover police officer Mark Jenner
• Chris Stephens MP
• John Hendy QC

A construction boss who played a pivotal role in orchestrating a blacklisting scandal that targeted union safety activists will face the courts, the union Unite has pledged.

The union said it “is closing in” on Cullum McAlpine who it wants to account for his actions in court. Unite is taking fresh legal action on behalf of workers who were blacklisted by the Consulting Association. Most of the major construction companies in the UK used its services.

Unlike the previous court case which concluded in 2016, Unite says it will be seeking to ensure Cullum McAlpine, the original chair of the Consulting Association and a director of UK construction giant Sir Robert McAlpine, is required to give evidence in court under oath. The trial is set to begin on 4 June and could last for six weeks.

Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said: “Unite is totally committed to ensuring that the key individuals behind blacklisting workers and ruining their lives as a result are required to account for their crimes in the public arena of a court.”

He added: “This is the minimum that the affected workers deserve. They need to see those responsible in the dock and finally forced to account for their actions. The forthcoming court case will finally ensure this will happen.”

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “There remain employers in construction and other industries who continue to believe it is somehow acceptable to engage in the disgusting and deceitful practice of blacklisting, to ruin people’s lives.

“We are seeing blacklisting ‘outsourced’ to labour suppliers at the beck and call of large firms and acting as unaccountable instigators of union busting. That’s why Unite is still fighting for justice for those who were previously affected but is also fighting to stamp out contemporary blacklisting.”

The Crossrail project could face industrial action over the firing of a well-regarded union safety activist. The looming dispute centres around Birmingham electrician Martin Overy, a former Unite safety rep who was dismissed last week only five hours after signing his contract with the electrical contractor Site Operative Solutions Limited (SOS) at Paddington station.

Overy features on the notorious Consulting Association blacklist and in 2016 was awarded damages in the major blacklisting trial at the High Court which saw eight construction giants agree a massive compensation payout.  However, the skilled electrician reports that he has struggled to find and stay in employment.

Paddington station is under the control of the Swedish multinational Skanska, one of the defendants in the High Court litigation. It has publicly apologised for its role in the blacklisting scandal.

But the union-supported Blacklist Support Group (BSG) says the company has since been accused repeatedly of involvement in “contemporary ongoing blacklisting after FOI requests highlighted emails that showed union members were being kept under surveillance.”

BSG says the Crossrail project has been dogged by claims of blacklisting. A parliamentary select committee was told that Frank Morris, a UNITE shop steward, was dismissed from the project after his name appeared in a list of ‘troublemakers’.

Roy Bentham, the BSG joint secretary and a Unite executive council member commented: “In an industry with such an appalling fatality record, workers who are prepared to raise concerns about safety should be valued but instead the treatment of Martin Overy seems a blatant case of blacklisting.

“Both Crossrail and Skanska have got form on blacklisting and we’re not going to sit back and let this happen again. If Martin isn’t reinstated, rank and file industrial action is unstoppable.”

Cosmetics brand Lush has been praised by campaigners for its nationwide campaign to raise awareness of the ‘spycops’ scandal, which has seen union, safety, environmental and other activists’ groups infiltrated by undercover police officers.

Displays condemning the police strategy appeared in Lush stores last week. Customers were also asked to sign a postcard urging home secretary Sajid Javid – who has criticised the Lush action – to appoint a panel of experts to the inquiry, expand its remit to Scotland and to release the personal files of victims.

The company commented: “This campaign is not about the real police work done by those front line officers who support the public every day – it is about a controversial branch of political undercover policing that ran for many years before being exposed.

“Our campaign is to highlight this small and secretive subset of undercover policing that undermines and threatens the very idea of democracy.”

Blacklist Support Group secretary Dave Smith, who was blacklisted for his union safety activities and was involved in groups infiltrated by undercover officers, praised Lush founder Mark Constantine.

“He promised to publicise the spycops issue in every store across the UK and he has lived up to his word.” Smith criticised secrecy in the ongoing Mitting inquiry into undercover policing, adding: “In its current form, the public inquiry is heading towards being a good old-fashioned Establishment whitewash.”

Union construction safety campaigns were among those infiltrated by undercover police officers.

The Metropolitan Police has admitted passing the information it obtained on construction safety campaigners to the Consulting Association, an illegal blackilsting organisation financed by major construction companies.

The association was shutdown by the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2009.

Leading politicians, lawyers, union officials and victims of the undercover policing scandal have all signed an open letter defending Lush in the wake of criticism of the company’s campaign.

The shadow chancellor John McDonnell and union leaders Len McCluskey, Matt Wrack and Manuel Cortes are among the signatories.

The former wives of undercover cops whose partners started secret relationships and sometimes second families with targeted activists under assumed names, have also backed the Lush stance.

Protests are planned across the UK plus a lobby of MPs at Westminster. The Blacklist Support Group is urging supporters to publicise the events and where possible to attend. Bring your banners and wear your ‘Blacklisted’ t-shirts with pride.

Blacklist Support Group statement

Big Ben will now cost £61m to renovate and all that taxpayers’ money will be trousered by the kings of blacklisting Sir Robert McAlpine Limited. Despite a debate in parliament and questions being asked to the Speaker of the House of Commons, all the sympathy from MPs has come to nothing. Again. This company was at the very centre of a national scandal  that violated the human rights of over 3000 workers over a 40 year period. Sir Robert McAlpine Limited has also been a major donor to the Conservative Party for decades.

The Blacklist Support Group is sick to death of those in authority promising to take action but repeatedly delivering nada. The award of the contract to McAlpine is a two-fingered salute to all blacklisted workers and the ‘democratic values’ that Big Ben is supposed to signify.

The Big Ben announcement came at the same time that minister Margot James reiterated the government’s position that the Tory government would not ban any blacklisting company from public contracts in a letter to Glasgow MP, Chris Stephens.

Roy Bentham, BSG joint secretary and blacklisted carpenter from Liverpool, commented:

“This is a case of the nasty party rearing its ugly head once more. The fact that so many of those complicit still work within the industry tells us everything. Only a full public inquiry will get to the truth of this conspiracy that blighted the lives of so many honest hard working families.”

The Speaker of the House of Commons and the Sir Robert McAlpine chief executive both joined the war of words about the £29m contract to refurbish Big Ben being awarded to the blacklist company. On Tuesday 5th September during a Westminster Hall debate on blacklisting MPs including Labour and SNP frontbenchers Jack Dromey and Chris Stephens joined Chuka Umunna in calling for the company that was at the very heart of The Consulting Association human rights scandal to be stripped of the Big Ben contract.

The former shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna went further on Thursday 7th by raising a ‘point of order’ on the floor of the House of Commons asking the Speaker, his “views and advice with regard to the matter of Big Ben” adding, “what message do you think it sends to the victims of this gross injustice for this House to award a contract to a firm that not only funded the Consulting Association, but provided its first chair and ​another chair?”

John Bercow replied that the question was “perfectly legitimately and reasonable” adding that although the company had been awarded the initial contract to provide scaffolding, the full contract had not yet been officially awarded to McAlpine. The Speaker of the House of Commons summed up by confirming “It is important. We are sensitive to it and we will be conscious in the days ahead of the reputational importance” and told MPs that he would make enquiries and make a further statement.

Stung by the ongoing criticism, the chief executive of Sir Robert McAlpine Limited, Paul Hamer wrote a letter to a number of newspapers claiming that “blacklisting “has no place now or in the future” at his firm and that the contractor was committed fully to “a zero-tolerance policy towards blacklisting, illegal or unfair recruitment practices”.  Adding that “I am pleased to confirm that Sir Robert McAlpine complies fully with all legislation to prevent blacklisting and is committed to fair and transparent recruitment.”

Roy Bentham, blacklisted carpenter from Liverpool and Blacklist Support Group, joint secretary responded to the McAlpine statement: “Paul Hamer might be the CEO but Cullum McAlpine owns the company and I sat behind Cullum McAlpine when he gave evidence to the select committee investigation. Upon advice from his lawyer who was sitting next to him throughout, the blacklister in chief smugly refused to answer questions put to him by MPs. The select committee report stated that they were “far from certain that all of our witnesses have told us ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’, despite many of them being under oath”. Blacklisted workers completely agree with that assessment by MPs

“Thirty years ago Sir Robert McAlpine Limited denied blacklisting people as part of the Economic League, 10 years ago they denied blacklisting people as part of The Consulting Association. And now they assure us that they’ve given up blacklisting completely. Given the company’s previous honesty on blacklisting, how could anybody possibly not believe them now?”

Unite assistant general secretary, Gail Cartmail said workers were “continuing to have their lives ruined simply for being a member of a union”.

MPs lined up to call for a public inquiry into blacklisting and for Sir Robert McAlpine to be stripped of the contract to refurbish Big Ben during a 5 September parliamentary debate.

Blacklisting company Sir Robert McAlpine has already been paid £3.5m of public money to carry out the enabling works on Big Ben and are in line for another bumper £29m pay-out to complete the 4 year refurbishment project. The human rights of over 3,000 construction workers were breached when they were repeatedly denied work simply for their trade union membership. MPs questioned whether Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd, as the driving force behind the blacklist, was the right contractor to be carrying out the works on Big Ben: the symbol of British democratic values.

Shadow minister for labour, Jack Dromey, said: “there has to be consequences for historic blacklisting” adding that “it is a scandal that the iconic Big Ben contract has been given to that company.!

SNP employment spokesperson Chris Stephens MP said: “Blacklisting firms have grown rich on public sector contracts” arguing that is was an ‘act of bad faith by the government that the one of the main perpetrators is being given access to public money.”

The call for Sir Robert McAlpine to be stripped of the Big Ben contract was repeated by numerous MPs including Chuka Umunna throughout the packed Westminster Hall debate.

During the debate, Chuka Umunna presented previously unreported evidence gathered from Freedom of Information Act requests that obtained emails between Crossrail and contractors on the publicly funded project that reveal continuing surveillance of union members. Umunna described the new evidence as “ugly underbelly of this sector that continues to go unaddressed” and repeated the call for a full public inquiry to finally get the truth behind this hidden human rights conspiracy.

Conservative minister Margot James flailed in her attempted defence of the government’s inaction, claiming that the “government take the issue of blacklisting very seriously” but point blankly refused to answer direct questions about the controversial Big Ben contract from Chuka Umunna, Chris Stephens and Jack Dromey.

The blacklisting conspiracy is linked to the undercover police scandal as senior officers from police units engaged in spying on so-called ‘domestic extremists’ attended and gave a PowerPoint presentation at one of the meetings of the illegal Consulting Association. Chaka Umunna said documents “strongly suggests that some of the evidence was supplied with the collusion of the police or the security services,”

Vic Williams, a blacklisted electrician from Leytonstone in east London, said: “Twelve months ago, the big construction companies gave us an apology for their involvement in blacklisting. They were only sorry for getting caught. McAlpine are coining in taxpayers money, they’re laughing at us. If MPs had any moral compass, they’d strip McAlpine of the Big Ben contract”.

Dave Smith, blacklisted construction worker and secretary of the Blacklist Support Group commented: “In all the media coverage of the Houses of parliament construction works, Big Ben was described as the symbol of British democratic values. So how can a company that breached the human rights of thousands of honest construction workers be a suitable contractor for one of the most prestigious construction projects in the world?

“The iconic bell of Big Ben might have fallen silent but blacklisted workers refuse to remain silent until those guilty of orchestrating this national scandal are forced to account for their actions at a public inquiry”.

Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a major financial donor to the Conservative Party.

 

Only one person has been prosecuted for their criminal culpability in the blacklisting scandal, with not a single construction director behind the illegal operation having faced charges.

However, Ian Kerr, the former head of the Consulting Association – the industry financed organisation that spied on union and safety activists and provided the information to major site firms – has now been joined by award-winning human rights campaigner Dave Smith, as the focus of a prosecution.

Smith, a blacklisted worker and secretary of the Blacklist Support Group, was found guilty this week but discharged at the City of London magistrates’ court for disrupting traffic in Park Lane, London, in a blacklisting protest in March last year.

Commenting after his conviction, he said since the scandal erupted, “only two people have ever been convicted because of their involvement with blacklisting — Ian Kerr and me.” Smith was not fined but the offence will be held on his record for the next six months.

The Green Party this week came out in support of calls for a public inquiry into the practice of blacklisting trade unionists and campaigners. Outgoing Green leader Natalie Bennett said: “The time has come for a public inquiry into the shameful practice of blacklisting. It’s vital that those who were discriminated against, and the public, gain an understanding of how this information on suspected trade unionists was collected and how it was shared with prospective employers.”

Green Party member of the House of Lords Jenny Jones added that companies caught using blacklisting should not be left with the responsibility for ridding the industry of the practice.

“That’s why parliament must step up and kick-start a public inquiry into blacklisting,” the baroness said. “I’m also urging any worker who was discriminated in this way to speak to me about their experiences. I’ll do all that I can to take this forward in the Lords.”

• Road block: How blocking roads has become a great way of making employers change direction, Hazards, 2016.