Statement from Blacklist support group
Blacklisted workers have campaigned for an independent investigation into union collusion for a long time: too long. We have known for over a decade that some blacklist files record the names of senior union officials as the source of information that led to us being denied employment. Previous General Secretaries even met with Norman Tebbit to discuss the activities of union members.
We know for a fact that some union officials emailed information about union activists to industrial relations consultants and managers working for major contractors up to their necks in blacklisting. This is totally unacceptable in a trade union movement that claims to be democratic and member led.
Every union activist in construction already knows who these people are. In many cases, Blacklist Support Group has already published their names. We are not accusing every union official of being corrupt, there are many honest value driven officials. But neither is this about ‘one or two bad apples’.
Over many decades, the senior leadership of construction unions actively encouraged a business friendly model of trade unionism, where cultivating partnership arrangements with employers was often given priority over fighting for workers’ rights. Overly friendly relationships developed between union officials and managers, this is the context in which information detrimental to union members was being discussed.
Any investigation into potential collusion by union officials in blacklisting needs to fully investigate the entire UNITE electronic database and that of predecessor unions to get to the truth. For this to happen, those carrying out the search of the union databases need to be completely independent of the union itself.
Blacklist Support Group therefore applaud the announcement that UNITE have created an oversight committee made of up blacklisted workers who will approve the appointment of an external legal team and a forensic evidence gathering consultant to oversee and carry out the searches of the union’s electronic databases. With this beefed up and more independent investigation, any lingering doubts about the independence of this investigation have now been removed.
If evidence exists of collusion or inappropriate practices that led to the passing on of information about union members, any possible barriers should now have been removed. BSG encourage anyone who has any evidence relevant to the investigation to come forward ASAP and provide it to the independent legal experts.
Blacklist support group FB page is here.
