Saturday 28 September 2013

Carillion Banned from Labour Conference



1. Carillion booted out of the Labour Party conference after a decision taken by the Labour Party NEC to refuse a stall to the blacklisting firm.
Well done Steve Rotherham MP and Jim Kennedy (UCATT) for moving it on the LP NEC.
2. Blacklisting discussed at the Conference floor and pledge from Labour front bench:
Chuka Umunna MP (Shadow Business Secretary) said in his speech that if the current government wont hold an inquiry into blacklisting - the next Labour government will. He got a big round of applause from delegates.
This is a big boost to our call for a public inquiry but don't get too carried away yet: Chuka is a front bench politician and an ex-lawyer, he uses language very precisely and said an 'inquiry' not a 'public inquiry'. Blacklisted workers applaud his speech but demand a full public inquiry with a wide enough remit to expose everyone who was involved in the blacklisting conspiracy. 
Paul Mooney UCATT told conference that companies who've been involved in blacklisting trade unionists must be banned from getting any public sector contracts.
Len McCluskey, Paul Kenny, Steve Murphy all raised either blacklisting or the Shrewsbury campaign in their speeches to the full conference floor.
3. GMB fringe meeting on 'Blacklisting the blacklisters' was standing room only, with over 100 people in attendance mainly councillors but also MPs and MSPs and people turned away at the door. Two representatives of Carillion were there taking notes.
Chaired by Shami Chakrabarti - Director of Liberty - who called for a full scale public inquiry into blacklisting.
Ian Davidson MP - chair of the Select Committee investigation into blacklisting - said we have not got the same publicity as phone hacking because we are working class victoms not the chattering classes.
Justin Bowden - GMB national officer - called for a big turn out on the TUC Day of Action on blacklisting
Michael Newman - Leigh Day solicitors explained that denying blacklisting firms from public contracts was perfectly legal and gave an explanation and even agreed to host a workshop for local authorities to alleviate fears being expressed by council legal teams - this is a political decision not a legal one. (Legal brief attached)
Dave Smith - Blacklist Support Group - exposed the recently documents that prove that the police were involved in blacklisting, stated that we have no faith in the police investigating the police and called for a full public inquiry.
Blacklist Support Group
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/
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The current printed issue of NORTHERN VOICES No.14, is now available for sale at all our usual outlets in the North of England and beyond - see below. This issue N.V.14 has a Tameside Eye story about how Tameside has a history of involvement in blacklisting, it also contains an interview by Barry Woodling with George Tapp  - the Salford electrician injured in May on an anti-blacklist picket.  The Voices has been in the forthfront of the campaign against the blacklist since 2003 and the DAF dispute at Manchester Piccadilly, its editor, an electrician, was on the blacklist of the Economic League in the 1960s, and there was an attempt to blacklist him while he was working in Gibraltar in both 1964 and 1967, but at the time this intervention by the Foreign Office was resisted by the Gibraltarian authorities, and the Gibraltar Transport & General Workers Union.
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques made payable to 'Northern Voices' should be sent c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com

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