By Roy Bentham, joint secretary, blacklist support group.
On 15th January 2018, one of the most prolific black-listers in the construction Industry went bust. For those of us who suffered as a result of Carillion’s illegal relationship with the Consulting Association, the moment was very much bitter-sweet.
My initial thoughts were ‘what goes around comes around’ and it’d be good riddance to a rancid company who’d not even disciplined anyone, let alone sacked them for their roles in the blacklisting scandal. They were only sorry for being caught as opposed to what they’d been complicit in along with the other 43 big players in the building industry.
Then I thought of those in dire straits as a result of their liquidation. The subbies and to that end the smaller subbies, those on the books who’d lose their pensions, the suppliers, the bogusly self-employed, those at the sharp end of the coal face and who’d stood to lose their businesses as a result of the many, many thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands of pounds the multi-national West Midlands contractor robbed from them as a result of their reckless business model.
My attention then focused on why this model was broken. Back in April 2014 on Merseyside, the Blacklist Support Group honed in on Carillion as an anti-workers’ rights and to that end anti-union company. I, along with others, attended a meeting with a member of Liverpool City Council’s cabinet to express our views regarding Carillion and that other prolific black-lister, Laing O’Rourke.
Our position was two-fold. Carillion was still “at it”, after being caught red-handed in February 2009, and Laing O’Rourke was too. Both companies were being afforded the freedom of the city with work being given to them coming out of their ears. Three major projects in the city including The Royal Liverpool Hospital, the Anfield stadium expansion and Alder Hey. There was little or no union representation and little or no recognition of national agreements and union safety reps/committees and other than it being historical, it was very much contemporary- Blacklisting was still rife.
We put a workers’ charter together along with Unite, GMB and the now-defunct UCATT union which the Liverpool City Council endorsed to much fanfare. Again, the status quo stayed the same with little or no difference to site pay, terms and conditions.
Tail wagging the dog
In real terms here in Liverpool, it was still the tail wagging the dog. Myself and Terry Brough (a blacklisted bricklayer from St. Helens) met the CEO of Liverpool FC twice to express our concerns about Carillion. I even gave him my joint secretary Dave Smith’s book Blacklisted to read for himself what they’d got in bed with. Ultimately, we were paid lip service. I and others also met the NHS Trust over the Royal Hospital, twice again, to remind them of what a terrible company Carillion was and again it fell on deaf ears. My overriding feeling was that they were rabbits caught in headlights.
We demonstrated outside all of these projects to highlight what we had welcomed with open arms into our proud working-class city. Islington council had previously led the way and Gary Doolan, its leader, kicked Kier who were another company exposed in the Consulting Association scandal off a publicly-funded contract down in London. He met personally with Liverpool councillors at our request and sadly they chose to sit on his blueprint and did nothing.
After all these frustrating events my hunch was we as workers had to be part of the solution. Clearly what’s documented above is what was part of the problem so with that I drafted the resolution below. It has now been passed at branch level, at my CLP in Wavertree and it went through unopposed at a national Rank and File meeting in Glasgow recently too. It can be amended to suit any branch or CLP as you see fit.
Ultimately, my hope is for more political representation for ourselves. Dismally, as aforementioned, councils up and down the country have passed motions against blacklisting in recent years and not acted upon them. That’s why as the vanguard of the industry, we need this motion with teeth.
I stated at the time of Carillion’s demise as BSG joint-secretary that we’ve had a Grenfell moment in construction and to that end what big business has bestowed on us. Hedge funders, speculators, executive directors – all stealing a living creating pension fund blackholes whilst working class people suffer. We owe it to not just to ourselves but to our kids to put it right.
A fully implemented workers charter which is constantly monitored is key to that. Whatever way you like at it politically, morally and socially, planning and procurement has got to change.
Model resolution (please amend as required):
This CLP notes Liverpool City Council’s ill-fated relationship with two of the most prolific Consulting Association blacklisters – namely Carillion and Laing O’Rourke, which has been brought into even sharper focus by the recent collapse of Carillion.
The CLP shares the Blacklist Support Group’s dismay that these rogue contractors have been securing public contracts within our city, thereby rendering the Cabinet’s motion, passed in 2013, meaningless. It also contravenes the ethos of the document referred to as the ‘Workers Charter’
The CLP therefore resolves to remind the Council that blacklisting was and still is an unacceptable practice, which cannot be condoned. We therefore urge that those companies who were members of the clandestine organisation, the Consulting Association, and any others found to be engaging in blacklisting, be removed forthwith from the approved list for future construction work procured by the Council.
Since these discredited contractors have continued to be awarded work in the city, this CLP calls for a working group to be set up, comprising two elected members of the Blacklist Support Group and the appropriate cabinet council members, to monitor this process of disengagement.
March 5, 2018
