Friday 9 March 2018

Blacklist Support Group progress report:

Roy Benthan reports:

'Cheers for the heads up there Brian.  It [the Tameside MBC's broken model] looks like a carbon copy of our predicament here on Merseyside and i will be using your broken model when the time arises' 👍

Blacklist Support Group update - 6th March 2018. 


1. Model Blacklisting working group resolution which can be presented to all Constituency Labour Parties (CPL) passed at Liverpool Wavertree Constitutuency Labour Party last month. 
Model resolution (please amend as required):
This Constituency Labour Party 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.
Roy Bentham, blacklisted carpenter from Liverpool and BSG joint secretary noted:

It’s a groundbreaking motion which sailed through a vote our CLP and it recognised the need for change within planning and the procurement processes. Carillion was a Grenfell moment within the construction industry and we can act as a vanguard against unethical companies with this resolution. 

The old model was broken and we need to face upto that.. Its now up to us fix it with the firm implementation of the workers charter. There can be no other way". 


2. Spycops - Serious concern over ongoing delaying tactics at inquiry into undercover political policing 


3. Was my friend an undercover police officer? 
Shocking revelations here too

4. Mark Constantine introduced our session at the Lush Summit 2018 by saying, “Spycops is THE most important campaign in the UK today”

5. BSG out in force with banners and showing support for the Keep NHS public day on Saturday 3rd March and RMT train drivers strike too 

6. Big feature article on John McDonnell in the FT on Friday 1st March. Both joint secretary’s Dave Smith and Roy Bentham contributed to the article of one of our founder members. 

McDonnell lists his hobby in Who’s Who as “fermenting the downfall of capitalism”. 
"Our objectives are socialist. That means an irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people,” he explains. 

Dave Smith, head of the Blacklist Support Group, says he would often encounter McDonnell at a picket at 6.30am:  “When no one else was prepared to talk to us he was there . . . representing working people fighting for justice.”

Royston Bentham, a blacklisted construction worker from Liverpool, says McDonnell sometimes visits Anfield:  “People come over all the time and shake his hand and chant his name in the pub . . . he has been through the bad times in the Labour Party and is now on the cusp of something big.”


7. BSG member Jack Fawbert scribes another brilliant piece on his Blacklisting experiences here 

8. Mears dispute has been won by the brothers and sisters emphatically up in Manchester. 
We send our solidarity upto the Nw on a magnificent victory 
http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/mears-settles-manchester-dispute

9. And finally we stand shoulder to shoulder with our UCU comrades striking for pay and pensions in education and the Crossrail electricians in dispute with Balfour Beatty. They have our full support in their struggles.. 
http://shopstewards.net/2018/02/4802/


In solidarity 
Roy Bentham  

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