Blacklist Support Group
\nPRESS RELEASE:\u00a0 Electricians picket against the blacklist<\/p>\n
On the 27th, August 2009; the Greater Manchester ‘Campaign against the Blacklist’ <\/em><\/strong>is organising a protest picket on the Rock Project in Bury, Lancashire, to take place at the end of The Rock at the gate opposite the department store WILKINSONS, 111, The Rock, Bury.\u00a0 Media coverage is expected between 10am & 11am.\u00a0 The Secretary of the Unite\/ EPIU Manchester<\/em> Contracting Branch NW 6\/1400, blacklisted electrician, Steven Acheson, will be there together with other blacklisted electricians and activists in the building trade.\u00a0 Brian Bamford, Secretary of Bury Unite Branch NW 6\/353 will also be present.\u00a0\u00a0The protest\u00a0is open to all trade unionists & their supporters. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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\nThe reason for this protest, at this the biggest project in Europe, is that the main contractor Lange O’Rourke has been identified by the Information Commissioner as an affiliate to Ian Kerr’s ‘The Consulting Association’ <\/strong><\/em>that last month\u00a0pleaded guilty in the Knutsford Crown Court to illegitimately managing a data base: Blacklist.\u00a0 Also another company operating on this site – NG Bailey – was another affiliate of The Consulting Association.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>The government is now considering a change in the law to make blackilisting of trade unionists specifically illegal.\u00a0 Another reason for the protest is that Brian Bamford as Secretary of Bury Unite Branch wrote to Mark Sanders, the Chief Executive of Bury Council on the 18th, May seeking reassurance that\u00a0he would use his influence to ensure that there would be no blacklisting on the Bury building sites.\u00a0 As yet there has been no reply from Mr Sanders despite a further appeal in July of this year.\u00a0 Brian Bamford, Secretary of Bury Unite the Union, declared:\u00a0 ‘In all these circumstances local trade unionists and all fair minded people connected with our campaign, feel that it is necessary to protest to draw the public attention to a dispicable practice in the British building trade that has gone unchecked for many years.’\u00a0\u00a0
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\nElectricians Protest Picket against the blacklist: to be held Thursday\u00a027th August 2009. Start time\u00a0will be\u00a08am, however, media coverage required for\u00a0between 10-11am.\u00a0 Protest will take place at the nearest gate opposite Wilkinsons, 111 The Rock, Bury.\u00a0<\/p>\n