Blacklisting By Unions

Here's an incredible article which appeared in The Times newspaper recently - which recounts a terrible tale of blacklisting in the construction industry - aided and abetted at times by the trade unions, allegedly.

Now I can't say I'm surprised - because I know from personal experience how vindictive trade unions can be - if they feel that someone is troublesome or rocking the boat.

When I resigned from the Labour party in 1999 - while acting as Unison's Head of Local Government and chief negotiator in Scotland - my 20 year trade union career ended only months later, albeit on my own terms.

But when I started to look for work or apply for contracts in the months that followed - I realised very quickly that I would not be successful in my efforts - even for the kind of jobs that I could do blindfolded and while standing on my head!

In other words - I being punished by the 'tribe' whose networks and connections were very strong - and often I found the waterhole poisoned long before I arrived.  

Then again I'm not complaining because look how everything turned out in the end - even if I wasn't to know that at the time.

So that's why I think there should be a very thorough investigation into the story unearthed by The Times - and the role played by the trade unions as well as the employers.

And that's another good reason why trade unions should also be included in the list of organisations - to whom the country's Freedom of Information rules apply. 

Blacklist of ‘troublemakers’ compiled with the help of construction unions

By Billy Kenber

Trade union officials helped to blacklist their own members from working on some of the most prestigious construction projects of the past 20 years, The Times has learnt.

The names and personal details of workers deemed “perennial troublemakers” by unions including Ucatt, the construction union, and Amicus, now part of Unite, were fed to a database run by a secretive vetting company set up and financed by several of Britain’s biggest builders.

Balfour Beatty, Skanska and Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd are among those accused of using the files to deny jobs on projects such as the Jubilee Line extension in the late 1990s, the construction of the Millennium Dome and works for the 2012 Olympics.

Workers say that they struggled to feed their families after being unfairly denied employment for years at a time, often because they had raised health and safety concerns or were politically active, and more than 80 have begun legal action, seeking compensation.

The existence of the secret blacklist was discovered by the Information Commissioner’s Office when it raided the offices of the company running it, the Consulting Association (CA), in February 2009. The list contained the names of 3,213 workers, The association’s chief executive, Ian Kerr, who was fined for breaching the Data Protection Act, died last month, aged 70, shortly after giving evidence to a Commons committee. He had promised to write to MPs with further information, including the names of managers who attended CA meetings. But he had failed to do so at the time of his death, prompting fears that he had taken its “secrets to his grave”.

However, in his first and only interview, which can now be published by The Times, Mr Kerr alleged that:

Local trade union organisers, including officials from Ucatt and Amicus, passed the names of some of their own members to senior HR managers at construction companies.

The association had close links with the police and security services, exchanging information on environmental activists and construction workers, and at least one senior officer attended a CA meeting.

Two companies, Sir Robert McAlpine and Vinci Construction, contributed towards Mr Kerr’s legal and winding-up costs in closing down the association. Mr Kerr claimed that McAlpine also agreed to pay a court-ordered fine in exchange for his silence, repeating an allegation he made to MPs in November.

Mr Kerr said that the CA had been funded by an initial £10,000 loan from McAlpine when it was set up in 1993 and a senior employee from each member construction company sat on the steering committee.

In a statement, McAlpine said that it had “never operated a blacklist” and denied that payments to Mr Kerr after the association closed “were in any way linked to his taking responsibility or protecting any member, or members” of the CA. Cullum McAlpine, an executive at McAlpine, appeared before MPs on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee yesterday and admitted that the company had made checks on potential Olympic Stadium workers. However, he said that workers whose files contained details about health and safety concerns or political or trade union membership “should not have been on that list”.

Mr Kerr told The Times that major construction companies had formed the organisation because the industry needed “a service that allows it to check potential employees efficiently”. Members would pay an annual fee, which entitled them to attend meetings organised by the CA. For up to £2.20 a time, they could also check the names of potential employees against the CA’s database, which was compiled from information provided by a single contact at each construction company.

Blacklisted workers who have been allowed to see their own files since the CA’s dissolution in 2009 have long suspected that some trade union officials contributed information and a number of files include references to Ucatt and Amicus, including one that read: “Not recommended by Amicus”.

In a Commons debate this afternoon, Labour is expected to call for an investigation into allegations that publicly funded construction projects, including the Olympics and Crossrail, consulted the association’s blacklist.

A spokesman for UCATT said the union “totally condemns blacklisting”. A spokesman for Unite said that it had supported members taking legal action over the isssue.

billy.kenber@thetimes.co.uk