Unite aim to put blacklister in Court

RISKS Number 887:
RISKS is the TUC's weekly online bulletin for safety reps and others sponsored by Thompsons Solicitors.   Sign up to receive this bulletin every week.  Past issues are available. Disclaimer and Privacy Editor: Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine.  Comments to the TUC at healthandsafety@tuc.org.uk.  SENT TO NV by Joe Bailey:
A CONSTRUCTION boss who played a pivotal role in orchestrating a blacklisting scandal that targeted union safety activists will face the courts, the union Unite has pledged.   The union said it “is closing in” on Cullum McAlpine who it wants to account for his actions in court. Unite is taking fresh legal action on behalf of workers who were blacklisted by the Consulting Association.  Most of the major construction companies in the UK used the illegal service.   Unlike the previous court case which concluded in 2016, Unite says it will be seeking to ensure Cullum McAlpine, the original chair of the Consulting Association and a director of UK construction giant Sir Robert McAlpine, is required to give evidence in court under oath. The trial is set to begin on 4 June and could last for six weeks.

Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said: “Unite is totally committed to ensuring that the key individuals behind blacklisting workers and ruining their lives as a result are required to account for their crimes in the public arena of a court.”   He added: “This is the minimum that the affected workers deserve.   They need to see those responsible in the dock and finally forced to account for their actions.   The forthcoming court case will finally ensure this will happen.”   

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “There remain employers in construction and other industries who continue to believe it is somehow acceptable to engage in the disgusting and deceitful practice of blacklisting, to ruin people’s lives.  We are seeing blacklisting ‘outsourced’ to labour suppliers at the beck and call of large firms and acting as unaccountable instigators of union busting.  That’s why Unite is still fighting for justice for those who were previously affected but is also fighting to stamp out contemporary blacklisting.”

UK asbestos giant spied on activists

Sent in by Unite trade unionist, Joe Bailey

EXECUTIVES at the world’s biggest asbestos factory spied on journalists, safety and environmental campaigners who exposed the killer dust’s dangers.  Secret industry documents seen by The Independent reveal that the executives at Rochdale-based asbestos giant Turner and Newall (T&N) monitored people they considered to be “subversive" and kept a dossier on their activities at the height of the debate about the mineral’s safety in the 1980s.

Those identified in the report include the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS) – the organisation that set up what became Hazards magazine – Alan Dalton, the now deceased former union national safety officer and author of ‘Asbestos Killer Dust’, journalists working on an award-winning asbestos documentary and Friends of the Earth.   Also targeted was Nancy Tait, the founder of the world’s first asbestos victims’ advocacy group, an asbestos widow who died in 2009.  The firm then used a media and political campaign to try to discredit its critics, the documents show.

The T&N documentation was unearthed by Manchester Metropolitan University’s Jason Addy as part of 12 years of research into the firm’s toxic legacy.  The trained lawyer told Hazards magazine:

“My research findings give me great cause for concern. There must be an investigation into Turner and Newall's role in undermining the democratic process, especially in light of the ongoing Pitchford enquiry and blacklisting court case. Who guards the guards?”

Ÿ  The Independent. IBAS blog. Hazards magazine.