Blacklist in the construction industry....

[butchersapron]

If anyone in Bury or Greater mancs got some spare time tommorow

Britain: Electricians protest against blacklist

On the 27th, August 2009; the Greater Manchester ‘Campaign against the Blacklist’ 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. Media coverage is expected between 10am & 11am. The Secretary of the Unite/ EPIU Manchester Contracting Branch NW 6/1400, blacklisted electrician, Steven Acheson, will be there together with other blacklisted electricians and activists in the building trade. Brian Bamford, Secretary of Bury Unite Branch NW 6/353 will also be present. The protest is open to all trade unionists & their supporters.

 

[trevhagl]

@this, the Economic League lives, but remember, 'it's a free country'

btw, some of these will have been blacklisted for arguing for better health and safety, asbestos issues, etc, disgraceful

there should be a new law prosecuting all these cunts, like someone else said, these ruin peoples lives and it is all part of the ultra capitalist dream of a subservient workforce.

Been around since at least 1981 when the Business sang "National Insurance Blacklist" though

 

[josef1878]

there should be a new law prosecuting all these cunts, like someone else said, these ruin peoples lives and it is all part of the ultra capitalist dream of a subservient workforce.

Been around since at least 1981 when the Business sang "National Insurance Blacklist" though

Sung by a tory!

 

[belboid]

anyone in London on wednesday could do far worse than to get down to the royal courts of justice in the morning to show support for Steve Acheson, against whom an injunction is being sought under the Prevention of Terrorism Act! This is because they represent "a threat to the energy supplies of this country" apparently.

See http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/ for more details

 

[butchersapron]

Update:

Police are linked to blacklist of construction workers

Thepoliceor security services supplied information to a blacklist funded by the country's major construction firms that has kept thousands of people out of work over the past three decades.

TheInformation Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed that records that could only have come from the police or MI5 have been discovered in a vast database of files held on 3,200 victims who were deemed leftwing or troublesome.

David Clancy, investigations manager at the ICO, told the central London tribunal adjudicating on Smith's claims against construction giant Carillion that "there is information on the Consulting Association files that I believe could only be supplied by the police or the security services".

Speaking to the Observer, Clancy added: "The information was so specific and it contained in effect operational information that wouldn't have formed anything other than a police record."

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Fucking hell ...

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Also ...

A secret "blacklist" file was opened on an academic researching health and safety on oil rigs, raising concerns that the operation compiling the files was active outside the construction industry.

The Information Commissioner's Office seized data held on Professor Charles Woolfson, during their raid of the offices of the Consulting Association. The file appears to have been opened after Woolfson, then at Glasgow university, began writing on the safety of oil rigs following the Piper Alpha disaster, which killed 167 people in 1988. The file, which was being updated as late as 1996, referred readers to other intelligence held under the reference "file:OILC" The extract said: "Funding from oil industry to Glasgow university may now be cut if aboves activities continue or there may be a reduction in his activities to prevent this happening [sic]."

There is no suggestion that funding for the university was cut or that Woolfson came under pressure to stop his work. However, it is understood there were further databases held by the Consulting Association that the ICO were not permitted under their warrant to seize.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/mar/03/blacklist-files-oil-safety-academic

 

[Anonymous1]

You could compile a list of the dirty bastards involved in creating and referencing such lists,
but then i'm guessing you'd get done by the OB for "items that could be of use for terrorist purposes" or whatever the Orwellian speak
is they use this week. Also just a guess, but i'm sure you wouldn't simply be receiving a £5k fine either.

 

[lizzieloo]

That's a long list of potential employers off my list then

 

[ymu]

Great timing.

 

[butchersapron]

Update:

Police are linked to blacklist of construction workers

Forgot to say when i posted this last night that the blacklisters/blacklisters clients actually won the employment tribunal against David Smith.

The multinational construction company Carillion won an employment tribunal (ET) today, Friday, against a blacklisted worker.
This was despite the firm admitting that it had put false information on a blacklist about former engineer Dave Smith for his trade union activities.

Dave’s ET ruled in the company’s favour. It accepted that Dave, as an agency worker, did not have the same rights as a directly employed worker.

 

[articul8]

Are blacklists legal then, if the information isn't "false"? Surely not?

 

[Jon-of-arc]

I've never heard anything about this before. Makes me very angry. What a bunch of cunts.

 

[Lo Siento.]

Forgot to say when i posted this last night that the blacklisters/blacklisters clients actually won the employment tribunal against David Smith.

What, the ET decided that because he was an agency worker putting him on a blacklist was OK? What the fuck is the legislation supposed to be for then?

 

[dennisr]

Update:

Police are linked to blacklist of construction workers

My mate Dave has spent over 15 years trying to push this information out - finally his tenacity has paid off. I am over the fecking moon )) - We all used to joke about it - it made for running black humour - but could never be sure it was real. We had no evidence. Dave pushed it. And pushed it. And pushed it

He lost the employment tribunal (as ba points out) on a typical boss technicality a short while ago - but got the information out there in the process. That was always his aim.

Read the extended bit about Steve (inside the same issue) - where the anti-fascist activity came up on his employment black listing file. This is the police - the security services - the state - working hand in hand with those fuckers. its out in the open now.

 

[butchersapron]

Not just the construction industry...

RMT demands publication of secret “RMT File”

Rail union the RMT today demanded full disclosure of the secret “RMT FILE” held by blacklisting organisation the Consulting Association as evidence mounts of police and security services involvement in the targeting of union activists in the construction and railway industries.
To date, the Information Commissioner has only released construction industry files held by the Consulting Association.

However, those same files refer specifically to cross referencing to another “RMT FILE” which remains unpublished and which RMT says has been used by employers subscribing to the Consulting Association blacklisting services to wreck our members working lives in the railway industry.

 

[trevhagl]

its not just the construction industry too , read Blood On The Carpet by Adam Clayton , anyone who wants to get on in telly is screened by the powers that be.

 

[butchersapron]

Clapham. What does he say about industry blacklists?

 

[trevhagl]

Clapham. What does he say about industry blacklists?

i stand corrected!

well just that M15 vetted anyone who applied for a job higher up the ladder in the BBC and people were turned down on ridiculous tenuous links to the communist party ie their ex girlfriend was a member...

i would guess this is the same throughout society in any job of power which is probably why we're in the state we are today

 

[butchersapron]

Bit more info coming out now - from the ruling on Dave Smiths tribunal:

“We reached our conclusion with considerable reluctance.”

“It seems to us that he has suffered a genuine injustice and we greatly regret that the law provides him with no remedy.
“We hope that he can take some comfort from the fact that the wrongdoing of which he complains has been exposed and punished and legislation passed designed to protect others from the misfortunes which he has experienced.”

Much more info here - and i expect more in time.

 

[ymu]

Thanks butch.

He's fighting on - great stuff.

The blacklist file was shared amongst the 44 largest construction firms in the UK and resulted in repeated dismissals and periods of unemployment. The Consulting Association was shut down after a raid by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

It found files on more than 3,200 workers.

Dave Smith said: “The written judgement says that I have suffered a great injustice at the hands of big business.

“It is not just me, but thousands of other workers who have suffered a grave injustice. The decision sums up by saying that, as an agency worker, I have no protection under UK law. In that case, we need to change the law.

“That’s why we are going to fight this all the way – we will appeal it to Strasbourg, if necessary.”

Lawyers are currently preparing an appeal against the Employment Tribunal’s decision.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

MORE than 150 Merseyside workers’ names were put on outlawed blacklists to stop them from getting jobs in the building trade.
The men, many of whom do not even know they are on the register, have not been able to secure work in the construction industry for years.
An ECHO investigation also found that some of the firms which were subscribers or had subsidiaries who subscribed to the blacklist operate in the region, with some currently undertaking or in the running for big public sector contracts on Merseyside


Read more: Liverpool Echo http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/2013/01/15/liverpool-echo-investigation-more-than-150-mersey-workers-names-on-outlawed-construction-industry-blacklists-100252-32598755/#ixzz2I2vOOGKT​

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/2013...truction-industry-blacklists-100252-32598755/

 

[ymu]

Decent report on the BBC 6 o'clock news just now.

 

[GB4]

I saw it. Unbelievable that it isn't getting a lot more attention.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...s-relating-to-shrewsbury-24-case-8463321.html

 

[ymu]

Agreed. But there was no dissembling from the BBC. Straight up condemnation, and they mentioned involvement in health and safety issues as being one of the reasons for blacklisting, which is also important in terms of the way the story is perceived.

It felt like a story they might be planning to come back to. Fingers crossed.

 

[not-bono-ever]

not surprised this is still going on - My dad was blacklisted during the seamans strike & later on , was marked when he was organising stuff for the miners in the mid 80s & picketing the docks @ Dover - his career was well fucked . Hope the blacklisted get some kind of compo.

 

[articul8]

Still going on, Balfour Beaty confirmed cross-checking blacklist re Olympic Park and Crossrail. Debate in parliament yesterday:
http://tucg.org.uk/2-uncategorised/240-parliament-debates-blacklisting-scandal

 

[weepiper]

My local paper is apparently running an article today on the consortium in charge of building the new Forth bridge using the blacklist to vet workers.

 

[brogdale]

Still going on, Balfour Beaty confirmed cross-checking blacklist re Olympic Park and Crossrail. Debate in parliament yesterday:
http://tucg.org.uk/2-uncategorised/240-parliament-debates-blacklisting-scandal

Hope that some unions can pay for class actions against these scumbag employers...loss of earnings and all that.

 

[ddraig]

they better bloody had!