{"id":970,"date":"2016-02-20T11:28:06","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T10:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/?p=970"},"modified":"2016-02-20T11:28:06","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T10:28:06","slug":"blacklisting-exposes-trade-union-bills-folly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/2016\/02\/20\/blacklisting-exposes-trade-union-bills-folly\/","title":{"rendered":"Blacklisting exposes Trade Union Bill\u2019s folly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Britain\u2019s blacklisting scandal, which saw thousands of construction union reps victimised or denied work for raising safety concerns, provides \u2018clear proof\u2019 of the dangers posed by the government\u2019s Trade Union Bill.<\/p>\n<p>TUC head of safety, Hugh Robertson, says the first tranche of compensation settlements \u2013 amounting to \u00a35.6m shared between 71 workers \u2013 \u201care no recompense for the thousands of ruined lives that resulted from the illegal actions of these companies, but they do show the importance of being in a union.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Writing in the <a href=\"http:\/\/leftfootforward.org\/2016\/02\/blacklisting-scandal-shows-how-dangerous-the-trade-union-bill-is\/\">Left Foot Forward blog<\/a>, he noted: \u201cWithout the support that the GMB, Unite and UCATT gave and the work they did with the incredible Blacklist Support Group, the workers would have either received nothing, or, at the very least, some token amount.\u201d He said more cases were due before the High Court in May, but added: \u201cOf course it is more than just about money.<\/p>\n<p>The unions also want to protect future workers, which is why they are pushing for a full inquiry into blacklisting and strong laws to make sure that this scandal is never repeated. The Trade Union Bill is an attempt to stop us doing that by making it harder for us to recruit and represent members, campaign, and strike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He warned that the Bill would give the Certification Officer new powers to investigate membership records, even where no complaints have been made. \u201cThis all raises concerns about the confidentiality of union membership and activism,\u201d Robertson notes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe blacklisting scandal is clear proof of why we need trade unions. Workers need them to ensure they are protected and, when things go wrong, to fight for their rights against employers, through the courts and to campaign for action from governments.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain\u2019s blacklisting scandal, which saw thousands of construction union reps victimised or denied work for raising safety concerns, provides \u2018clear proof\u2019 of the dangers posed by the government\u2019s Trade Union Bill. TUC head of safety, Hugh Robertson, says the first tranche of compensation settlements \u2013 amounting to \u00a35.6m shared between 71 workers \u2013 \u201care no &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/2016\/02\/20\/blacklisting-exposes-trade-union-bills-folly\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Blacklisting exposes Trade Union Bill\u2019s folly&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}