Len McCluskey says he hopes Sir Keir Starmer “learns the correct lessons”

General Secretary of Unite the Union Len McCluskey, has said he hopes Sir Keir Starmer “learns the correct lessons” from Labour’s defeat in the Hartlepool by-election.

“He was elected a year ago on a radical programme, some said a Corbyn-esque programme; he said he wanted to make the moral case for socialism; he wanted a united party - unfortunately he’s failed in all of those areas.

"Hartlepool is the manifestation of it - people don’t know what his vision is. People don’t know what Labour stand for anymore.”

Speaking on Political Thinking on BBC Radio Four, Mr McCluskey told Nick Robinson he no longer spoke to the Labour leader.

“Unfortunately when either side actually don’t deliver the deal and say there wasn’t a deal, trust breaks down, and that’s what happened with me and Keir.

But he added: “Obviously if he rang me I would speak to him. I don’t want to be nasty to anybody."

"But the truth of the matter at the moment is unless he presses that reset button, unless he goes back to making the moral case for socialism, unless he starts talking about the radical alternative for ordinary working people then I’m afraid we’ll find ourselves in this continuous downward decline.”

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Hinkley Point: Deskilling Dispute & Dodgy Training

by Brian Bamford

ON THE 1st, March this year Construction News reported on the deskilling dispute at Hinkley Point in Sommerset, that the creation of two training standards at the nuclear plant would according to the Unite union ‘undermine’ the role of electricians.

There is an industrial conflict which is ongoing at the Hinkley Point C plant after it was discovered that two training standards had been introduced by the Engineering Construction Training Board (ECITB) that would undermine the role of electricians, without Unite, the UK’s construction union, input or agreement.

The matter has been raised directly with the client of the French company EDF, who have reacted to Unite’s concerns. All training in this area has been postponed until the problem is resolved.

Dilutees & Sub-standard Training

The disputed training standards relate to cabling and containment work, which is ‘bread and butter’ work for electricians on new build construction projects.

Unite was alerted to the substandard training standards at an early stage. There are no electricians working at Hinkley Point C, currently undertaking cabling and containment work, as this phase of the project is yet to start.

Owing to the rapid intervention of Unite, the training of any worker or apprentice at Hinkley has not been disrupted as no one has begun to be trained on the ECTIB’s defective training standards.

The Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, has said “The undermining of the role of electrician has been attempted for more than 30 years, most recently in 2011/12 when eight of the major mechanical and electrical (M&E) construction companies promoted the use of non-electrical personnel to carry out skilled electrical tasks under the so called BESNA agreement.

“Unite defeated the BESNA agreement then and we will defeat this latest attempt to deskill electricians.

“Our message to the industry is clear. Unite and its electrical membership will oppose any and all efforts to weaken the skill set of the trade which will undermine the industry by introducing non-skilled operatives.

“Any deskilling of electricians would result in a race to the bottom and would be highly damaging to industrial relations across the sector.”

From the last week in March there have been weekly pickets outside Balfour Beatty’s offices in Bromborough, on the Wirral. Balfour Beatty has been contracted with EDF on the Somerset nuclear power plant. And another implicated contractor NG Bailey, has had its offices in Salford picketed on Fridays, and its sites at Manchester University and Manchester Town Hall have faced demonstrations by local activist electricians from the Manchester Contracing branch of Unite.

An Unholy Alliance of cheap-jack training

EDF and its partners are building the Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset. The firms there have introduced new installer grades that undercut industry terms and conditions.

The bosses’ MEH Alliance at Hinkley Point C is a consortium made up of Altrad, Balfour Beatty Bailey, Cavendish Nuclear and Doosan Babcock. It is calling the new rate-busting grades Electrical Support Operatives (ESO) and Engineering Construction Operative.

Their grand plan is to run short courses for electricians on how to install containment or cabling. There are 9,000 km of cable and 404 km of containment to install on the Hinkley project.

Hinkley Point C is due to open in June 2026—a year late and so far at a cost of £23 billion, some £5 billion over budget.

In February,Simon Basketter in the Socialist Worker wrote:

'Unite has enthusiastically supported the building of the nuclear plant. While it was proud to sign up to an agreement for apprentices which appears to have been broken, it also seems to have sleepwalked into the creation of ESOs.

'The dispute has echoes of the electricians’ Besna dispute in 2011. Originally eight companies had planned to impose a new agreement and grade on workers to undercut wages and organisation.

'That [dispute] saw an escalating campaign of direct action on construction sites. Electricians protested, occupied and struck unofficially for six months.'

The contracting electricians will have to be on the ball to fight off this assault on standards in the industry.

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Unite union leader condemns Starmer decision!

YESTERDAY the UNITE union general secretary, Len McCluskey said: “I am astonished at the decision to withdraw the Parliamentary Labour Party whip from Jeremy Corbyn.

“This is a vindictive and vengeful action which despoils Party democracy and due process alike, and amounts to overruling the unanimous decision of the NEC panel yesterday to readmit Jeremy to the Party.

“This action gives rise to double jeopardy in the handling of the case and shows marked bad faith.

“The unity of the Party around the need to implement the EHRC recommendations in full is being recklessly undermined.

“The continued persecution of Jeremy Corbyn, a politician who inspired millions, by a leadership capitulating to external pressure on Party procedures risks destroying the unity and integrity of the Labour Party.>

“I urge Keir Starmer in the strongest terms to pull back from the brink.”

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Unite is Britain and Ireland’s largest union with members working across all sectors of the economy. The general secretary is Len McCluskey.

Blackmailers Always Want More by Les May

AFTER Jeremy Corbyn was suspended from the Labour party the Guardian newspaper opened its comment column to Margaret Hodge. Her article is high on opinions, hers, resorts to generalisations, ‘the hard left’, complains about online conspiracy theories, which originate abroad and have nothing whatsoever to do with the Labour party, and dismisses as ‘fantastical’ the notion that she and her acolytes sought to ‘weaponise anti-semitism’, a view that is shared by many Labour supporting people I know.

Here’s an example.

In the article she claimed; ‘Only last week, the trade union leader Len McCluskey repeated a common antisemitic trope on television when attacking Peter Mandelson.’ But a more detailed account in the Jewish News, an online publication of the Times of Israel, which I quote verbatim, suggests a very different interpretation.

The Unite union’s general secretary, a leading ally of Jeremy Corbyn, made his comments on BBC Newsnight after reporter Lewis Goodall told him that former cabinet minister Lord Mandelson had been 'nothing but full of praise for Keir Starmer' in an interview.

Len McCluskey responded: 'I stopped listening to what Peter Mandelson said many, many years ago. I would suggest Peter just goes into a room and counts his gold. Not worrying about what’s happening in the Labour Party – leave that to those of us who are interested in ordinary working class people.'

Mr Goodall had said earlier in his report that 'When Mr McCluskey sat down with me, he used language that could be considered an antisemitic trope.'

After the Newsnight report looking into Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership and the future of the Labour party was aired, a clarification of Len McCluskey’s comments was read out.

The statement by Unite the union said:

'Mr Mandelson’s religion was not relevant to the comments made by Mr McCluskey. Indeed to the best of our knowledge Mr Mandelson is not Jewish.

'The ordinary meaning of the statement made by Mr McCluskey is one of his belief that in recent years Mr Mandelson has had more interest in increasing his own wealth than fighting for justice for working class people. The suggestion of any antisemitic meaning to the commentary would be ludicrous.'

Lord Mandelson is not religiously observant but his grandfather founded the Harrow United Synagogue.’

At this point you might ask yourself if you knew that Mandelson had Jewish ancestry and whether knowing it now makes any difference to your opinion of him. As for ‘counting his gold’; in August 2011 the media showed considerable interest in how he could afford an £8 million pound house and in January 2009 the Evening Standard published the results of its detailed investigation into how he could afford to buy his £2.5 million pound Regency Villa.

Hodge shows far more interest in the Jewish ancestry of herself and others than I can muster. And, as in this case, she’s always ready to ‘play the race card’ when it suits her, though she is hardly the first politician to do this.

In July 2018 she called Corbyn a ‘fucking racist and antisemite’ in the chamber of the House of Commons. Her response to hints that she might face being reported to the Whips, and face a disciplinary inquiry was to give an interview to Sky News and say: 'On the day that I heard that they were going to discipline me and possibly suspend me, it felt almost like, I kept thinking what did it feel like to be a Jew in Germany in the Thirties?' For ITV News this was: 'Because it felt almost as if they were coming for me. It’s rather difficult to define, but there’s that fear… '

This must surely be one of the most preposterous exaggerations that any politician has ever uttered. To try to draw a comparison with what happened to many Jewish people and many others in Nazi Germany in the 1930s beggars belief. And then she has the gall to use the word ‘fanatastical’ about other people!

Hodge’s response to the Unite statement was to say: ‘Regardless, he doesn’t get to obfuscate and dictate to us what is and is not anti-Semitic when called out. The ignorance with which these tropes are used by McCluskey and others shows just how pervasive and unchallenged antisemitism is on the Hard Left.’

Aside from the fact that comments in a similar vein about Mandelson are unlikely to be confined to what she calls the Hard Left, it seems clear that the intention of Hodge and those who think like her is to insist that they, and they alone, have the right to decide what is, and what is not, anti-semitic.

We have already seen this used to attack Livingstone, Corbyn and McCluskey, allowing her view to prevail would have implications, not just for the Labour party, but for the whole of civil society. In February of this year Lisa Nandy said that if she became leader she would try to go further than accepting the IHRA definition of anti-Jewish hatred. This is some of what the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has to say about that definition.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which is increasingly being adopted or considered by western governments, is worded in such a way as to be easily adopted or considered by western governments to intentionally equate legitimate criticisms of Israel and advocacy for Palestinian rights with antisemitism, as a means to suppress the former. This conflation undermines both the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality and the global struggle against antisemitism. It also serves to shield Israel from being held accountable to universal standards of human rights and international law.

In September 2018 Hodge excused her calling Corbyn a ‘fucking racist and antisemite’ on the grounds that she had just learned that Labour’s NEC had declined to adopt the IHRA definition.

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Labour Party suspends Jeremy Corbyn!

WHIP REMOVED FROM FORMER LABOUR LEADER

MARGARET HODGE said on Radio Four today at 1pm that 'I don't want to hear about that irrelevant man' and 'I think there is still a culture of anti-semitism' in the Labour Party. Meanwhile, Angela Rayner, the Deputy leader of the Labour Party also told us: 'Jeremy Corbyn has a blind spot'.

While later on the The Canary, a leftist website, Sophia Purdy-Moore wrote as follows:

'Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended, “in light of his comments” in response to an investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)’s investigation, published on 29 October, found Labour responsible for “unlawful acts of discrimination and harassment” in its handling of allegations of antisemitism.'

In his statement following the release of the report, Corbyn said he regrets it took “longer to deliver that change than it should,” but that:

"the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated."

This comment led to his suspension from the party. Corbyn told followers that he will “strongly contest” Labour’s decision to suspend him.

One Labour party member described what has happened to Jeremy Corbyn with the withdawal of the Labour whip and his suspension amounted to a 'witch-hunt' and a 'political assasination'.

Len McCluskey, the leader of the Unite union, has said this will lead to 'chaos' in the party.

Looks like more fun to come from the people's party! Watch this space!

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Unite's Len McCluskey & the lucrative libel lawyers

THE current PRIVATE EYE's TUC NEWS column reminded the Unite union's membership of 1.1m that though they may be worried for their jobs or in fear of Covid-19, their union is assuring the libel lawyers that they can count on bounteous harvest of refreshers following the lucrative case of Turley v Unite the Union.  Totting-up the costs of the trial which took up 7-days of court time, legal experts have told Private Eye 'the premium would be around £200,000' and the 'final bill to its luckless members members [of Unite] may be not far short of £2m.'

The Eye concludes:  'London's libel lawyers won't be going hungry any time soon.'  


However, only last January Ms Anna Turley was claiming on twitter that:

'Unite and Skwawkbox have failed to pay the damages and costs following my libel trial last month as ordered by the court. My solicitors are starting enforcement proceedings in the morning.' pic.twitter.com/pS8wpwIekF

— Anna Turley (@annaturley) January 16, 2020

At that time Guido Fawkes reported these developments on his Blog:
'In the latest development, the former MP has published a letter from her solicitors declaring given Unite’s failure to pay up, “The only conclusion we can draw is that your clients have deliberately chosen to cause further distress to Ms Turley or they are incompetent. Which is it?”, going on to say'

“We have prepared enforcement papers that will permit bailiffs to attend at your clinets’ premises to enforce the two final judgements. We shall issue these when the Court opens on Monday morning if the full judgement debts, together with ongoing interest, have not been satisfied.”

Guido Fawkes claimed:
This is much more entertaining than the Labour leadership contest…
UPDATE: Unite and Skwawkbox have finally coughed up

And Private Eye described the squabble as 'even by Labour's internecine standards it was a vicious fight.'

And then Ms. Turley was to announce on twitter:

'Unite & Skwawkbox have belatedly paid the damages and costs as ordered by the court. Proving after all that they are not above the law. What an avoidable waste of members’ money. Lesson is... don’t break the law.'

— Anna Turley (@annaturley) January 21, 2020

The judgement of Justice Nicklin J held that Unite was responsible for the defamatory statement because its Director of Communications sent the Second Defendant [Skwawkbox] a press summary fully aware that he intended to publish an article which would identify the Claimant and contain substantially the same defamatory sting about her 'being dishonest'.

The Defendant's Unite and Skwawkbox had claimed the Claimant “should have known” she was ineligible for Unite Community membership, but his Lordship emphasised that, even if that had been so, “negligence is unlikely to provide an objective basis upon which to reasonably suspect dishonesty” [134].

Skwawkbox the website that published the offending report had claimed that Turley, then Labour MP for Redcar, had called the leader of Unite an 'arsehole' and had joined Unite at cut price rate reserved 'exclusively for the unwaged' so she could 'undermine Jeremy Corbyn'.  Steve Walker, who runs Skwawkbox  according to the Mail Online 'Mr Walker, .... is the sales director and CEO of a company called Foojit, which provides mailing solutions to the NHS.'

Meanwhile Ms. Turley managed to lose her Redcar seat at last December's general election when the Labour Party backers Unite had declared in the High Court that she was 'not fit to be an MP'.  The £84,500  paid to Turley in aggravated damages, should help ease the pain of this defeat.  Probably Unite and its leader, Len McCluskey, now wish they had settled out of court when Turley's solicitors offered a settlement last June, if Unite agreed to pay her £25,000.  Now because the union refused this compromise it must now pay interest of 8% on the costs.  By rejecting this offer, it also lost the right to demand that Turley's legal advisors prove their costs were reasonable.

Ms Turley, MP for Redcar before losing her seat in the General Election, has said she was 'thrilled and relieved' after winning the case

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Len McCluskey slams Corbyn's 'London mindset'!

THE Unite union leader Len McCluskey, while he trained his fire on Remain-backing members of the Shadow Cabinet, as well as centrist MPs who 'hankered after the New Labour past', the Unite general secretary claimed Labour needed 'a new leader early in the near future" who could "understand the communities that gave birth to the Labour movement.'
 
The comments - in a piece for HuffPost UK - are highly significant as Unite is Labour's biggest financial backer and the general secretary has previously been a staunch ally of Mr Corbyn.
It comes after Labour lost 60 seats in its worst election performance since 1935.

Mr Corbyn has vowed to quit after a 'period of reflection', and earlier on Friday said:  'The responsible thing to do is not to walk away from the whole thing, and I will not do that.'

Mr McCluskey reserved the majority of his criticism for senior Labour figires who had advocated for a pro-Remain position and led the party into a 'slow-motion collapse into the arms of the People’s Vote movement'.

He said:  It is pretty obvious where the essential reason for Thursday’s hugely disappointing result can be found.
'When our losses are concentrated in former coalfield constituencies and other post-industrial communities that voted heavily "Leave" in the 2016 referendum, and yet we happily retain our position in London more-or-less unscathed, it is staring us in the face.

'Others will try to make a different case, either because they have volubly hankered after the New Labour past throughout the years of Corbyn’s leadership of the party, or because they lack the honesty to accept the consequences of their advocacy of keeping Britain in the EU at any political price.'

But he also acknowledged 'mistakes' made by the party's leadership throughout its campaign, including what he called an 'incontinent rush of policies which appeared to offer everything to everyone immediately'.
 
Taking direct aim at the Labour leader, Mr McCluskey - who has previously backed the party's handling of anti-Jewish abuse - said Mr Corbyn's 'failure to apologise for anti-Semitism in the party when pressed to do so' had capped 'years of mishandling of this question'.

While he said Labour's Brexit position, backed at its party conference earlier this year, was 'the right and honourable one' he said it had been 'fatally undermined from the outset by leading members of the shadow cabinet rushing to the TV cameras' to promise to back Remain in a future referendum.

The Unite chief said:  'Both Labour’s target seats, and the ones most at risk in the north and the Midlands, were preponderantly in Leave-voting areas with very small Liberal Democrat and Green votes.  Put bluntly, there were far more coalfield seats to lose than there were Canterburys to win.

'As it is, a year of worrying about and placating exclusively Remain voters has produced the backlash which some of us predicted.  Better by far that we had stuck with some updated variation of the 2017 Brexit position, rather than its negation.'

Urging the party to 'rebuild, reflect on what went wrong and inevitably elect a new leader early in the near future', Mr McCluskey said:  'Corbyn has borne the brunt of one of the most sustained and unpleasant character assassinations in political history and done so with dignity.
'But alas some of the mud stuck and his leadership became an issue on the doorstep.'

And, in a thinly-veiled dig at Mr Corbyn, he said:  'The next leader needs to understand the communities that gave birth to the Labour movement, and realise that the whole country is not very like Labour London.
'As important as it is, too often, Labour addresses the metropolitan wing of its electoral coalition in terms of values – openness, tolerance, human rights – and the "traditional" working-class wing simply in terms of a material offer, as if their constituencies did not have their own values of solidarity and community.  That must change.'

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Labour candidate sues Unite & Skwawkbox for libel in High Court.

The Dartford Warbler - Anna Turley MP

Anna Turley (40) is hoping to retain her parliamentary seat of Redcar in the forthcoming general election on 12 December. Turley has been the Member of Parliament for Redcar since 2015.  A former Home Office civil servant from Dartford in Kent, Turley was elected to stand in the Redcar constituency in 2013, from an all-women shortlist.

Three years ago she made the headlines after calling Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, an 'arsehole' on twitter. Turley has now made the headlines because she's suing Unite over an article published on Skwawkbox that related to an application she made for union membership. She's also suing Stephen Walker, a journalist who writes, edits, and publishes Skwawkbox, and says that Unite also misused her private information. Unite and Walker are fighting the case at a High Court trial in central London.

Yesterday, Anthony Hudson QC, who represents Unite, told Mr. Justice Nicklin that Turley had been dishonest and 'regrettably' was "not fit to be an MP." He added: "Turley's dishonesty permeates through every part of the case." 

The court was also told that Turley had wanted to join a trade union with the ultimate aim of ousting her own party leader Jeremy Corbyn and had links to a WhatsApp group opposing Corbyn. The court was also told that she had broken the rules when applying to join the union at the reduced rate of 50p a week. 

The trial is due to last several days with lawyers outlining their case to the Judge.

Be a Marra, support Durham Miners' Gala

Dear friend

 

I am honoured to be speaking at the 135th Durham Miners’ Gala this Saturday (13 July). The Gala is the greatest event in the trade union movement calendar.

It is now 25 years since the closure of the last colliery on the Durham coalfield. The Gala has not only survived, but is thriving, and serves as a beacon for the whole working class.

It is vital as trade unionists that we play our part to ensure that this great celebration of solidarity and community continues for many years to come.

For more than a century, the Gala was funded by the working miners of Durham. It is their gift to us all. Today, it is funded by Marras - the Friends of Durham Miners Gala. Marras - the Durham miners’ word for a friend who can be relied upon - make contributions throughout the year.

You can become a Marra for a little as £2 a month. As a proud Marra myself I ask you to give your support for the Durham Miners’ Gala and become a Marra today.

To join, visit: www.friendsofdurhamminersgala.org/join_us

The past we inherit; the future we build.

 

Len McCluskey

General secretary

Unite, Len McCluskey & Labour's Squabble

YESTERDAY Len McCluskey accused Labour'a deputy leader, Tom Watson, of being a 'poor imitation of Machiavelli' as alleged rumours were rife of another challenge against Jeremy Corbyn's leadership following Labour's poor showing in the EU elections.

McCluskey's remarks matter because his union is a major paymaster for the Labour Party.  Judging by what he had to say he seemed to suggest that Sir Keir Starmer was likely to be a challenger for the leader's job.


The Unite union's policy agreed by the union’s 2016 policy conference made it clear that the union accepted the result of the 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union.  It also set out our union’s priorities for dealing with the process of Brexit, which included protecting jobs, defending employment rights, and opposing the racist backlash that the referendum campaign unleashed.

In June 2018, Unite even joined the National Shop Steward's Network (NSSN) which has long been dominated by the Socialist Party (formerly Militant).  The ideology of this group has been bitterly anti-EU and has been rooted in a belief in the old-fashion concept of the 'British Road to Socialism'.
The recent affiliation of McCluskey's Unite seems to have been encouraged by a decision by the NSSN in 2018 not to field candidates against the Labour Party in elections. 

By linking up with the hole-in-the-corner anti-EU Trotskyist NSSN must now suggest that Unite, which formerly backed Remain, is stuck in the BREXIT trough.

Sir Keir Starmer has now said a second referendum is the 'only way' to break the Brexit deadlock, after Labour suffered a mauling from voters in the European elections.

 Meanwhile,three former ministers are now daring Corbyn to sack them in solidarity with Alastair Campbell who was expelled yesterday for saying that he voted LibDem in the European elections.

Mr Corbyn's office has thus far refused to say if the trio would be expelled

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Double-dealing & union blackballs?

UCATT was the trade union that merged with Unite in January 2017.  It was also the union that had allegedly full-time union officers who according to the current Private Eye 'shopped their "comrades",' and 'Blackleg', in the same journal writes:  'Two years ago, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail promised an inquiry into union officials' collusion with the big building firms - but there's still no sign of it.'

In December 2016, an open letter signed by blacklisted construction workers was circulated:

'.... one issue threatens to cause internal friction: possible union collusion in blacklisting.
Some years ago, both UCATT and UNITE carried out internal investigations into possible union involvement in blacklisting. But that was at a time when barely any of the documentation was available.
'Since the High Court, all that has changed. The employers were forced to provide witness statements and disclose 40 years worth of documentary evidence. It is now in the public domain that officials in both unions were recorded as the source of information on Economic League and Consulting Association blacklist files. Some of those named, remain senior officials in UNITE and UCATT to this day. Every union activist in construction knows who the named officials are, as does every major employer.'

Gail Cartmail had called for a 'full public inquiry with judicial authority'.  

Now Private Eye reveals:  'The joint head of Unite Construction, formed in January 2017 when Ucatt trade union merged with Unite, is Jerry Swain, who is also a Unite national officer.  Despite the tardiness of Unite, scores of blacklisted trade unionists have received compenstation, having taken their cases to the high court.  Among them was bricklayer Brian Higgins who presented evidence to the court in pre-hearings that union officials were the source of information given to construction firms about union activities in 1992, 2002 and 2003.'

Private Eye adds:   'Although the officials' names were redacted in pre-hearings of the high court case, Higgins subsequently obtained an unredacted copy of his file.  Among those who were said to have shopped their "comrades" was one, er, Jerry Swain, from 1991 to 2016 the London and South East regional secretary of Ucatt.  Just fancy that!'

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McCluskey's former love tipped for top Labour Job!

Jennie Formby - Unite Political Director

UNITE union boss, Jennie Formby, is in the running to be the next Labour General Secretary following the resignation of current General Secretary, Ian McNicholl.

Before marrying Frederick Formby in 2004, she was the ex-partner of Len McCluskey - now the General Secretary of Unite - and was then known as Jennifer Louise Sandle.  In 1991, she gave birth to McCluskey's son at the Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton.  In February, Formby was given the job as Unite's Political Director on a salary of £75,000.

Although amiable and avuncular, McCluskey's love life has been the subject of a great deal of gossip since he stood for re-election as General Secretary of Unite in 2017.  When Formby gave birth to his child in 1991, McCluskey had been married to Ann his first wife, for 28-years, and had a son.  He was also living in union subsidised property, while his wife continued to live in Liverpool.  He then set up home with another lover called Paula Lace, in a union-subsidised property.

During last years election for Unite General Secretary, which McCluskey won by a narrow margin, there were allegations that he had used union funds to help him buy properties in London.   The union said that the "purchase agreement" was not a loan of £400,000 but "an equity share arrangement."  His re-election is now the subject of an official probe by the Certification Officer.

Apart from being a close friend of Len McCluskey, Jennie Formby is also a close friend of Karie Murphy, a former Unison union official who was embroiled in the "Falkirk Fix Scandal."   A former nurse from Glasgow, Murphy is said to be the director of the Labour leader's office. 

When the New Statesman called Karie Murphy the "courtesan in the court of Corbyn" and revealed that she was Len's 'partner', they received a legal letter insisting on a correction to the effect that she was merely "a close friend of Len McCluskey" and nothing else.

Whatever attracted many of these women to the ageing libidinous Liverpudlian, is something that will always remain a mystery.  But power is said to be one of the most potent of aphrodisiacs, even though it is said to corrupt.  Personally,  I think Telemaque, sums the situation up most succinctly - "Services! talents! merit! bah! - join a clique."

Justice For The Blacklisted Workers

by Alan Wainwright

First published on his Blog: Friday, 6th, October 2017

VICARIOUS LIABILITY

"Vicarious liability refers to a situation where someone is held responsible for the actions or omissions of another person. In a workplace context, an employer can be liable for the acts or omissions of its employees, provided it can be shown that they took place in the course of their employment".

The Current Excuse

Mr McCluskey states the following in his correspondence to members dated 24 August 2017.

"Presently Unite have a further 70 plus cases being taken for victims of Blacklisting. It is vitally important that any review of documentation does not disrupt that litigation"

This can be downloaded HERE.

That may be, but I have raised a number of significant facts, complete with the evidence to support them that fall outside of this scope, which Mr McCluskey has completely disregarded.

                                                         Internal Documents

Further, I have been handed internal documents that provide an insight into the current status of these claims. They read:

"Legal Services represent 41 new Claimants in High Court proceedings against the same construction companies, and individual directors, as in the successful group litigation concluded last year. The claims are for conspiracy, breach of Data Protection Act, breach of privacy and confidence rights and, in may cases, defamation. Individual Particulars of Loss have been calculated and the claims are currently due to be served on the companies by 1 August. Legal Services is coordinating a further 17 new claims on behalf of former Ucatt members".

A Claimant in these proceedings has informed me that five figure offers have already been made by the construction companies and that they have been advised by the union to reject these.

These new claims have absolutely nothing to do with the matters raised by me to Mr McCluskey in MY REPORT dated 29 May 2017 and therefore should not hamper any investigation into such.

Legal Advice

Over the next few weeks I will be meeting blacklisted workers who feel they had a gun held to their head to discuss their experiences of the High Court settlements and hear their concerns. 

With their permission, I will be relaying this information to a team of solicitors who are assisting me with this matter.

The discussions will be held in complete confidence and on an individual basis. No information will be passed onto the solicitors or other blacklisted workers without the consent of the individual.

If you would like to discuss this with me you can email me direct at alanwainwright1963@gmail.com

Alternatively, you can call me on 07399 530323

It has now been eight years since we got our Consulting Association files. Eight years in which blacklisted workers have been raising their concerns about the involvement of trade union officials in the blacklisting. The unions could have launched an independent inquiry into all this over the last eight years.

They have not done so and have no intention of doing so. 

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'Can of Worms' of TU collaboration in Blacklisting

 by Alan Wainwright (Whistle-blower)

Some blacklisted workers have made reference to a gun being held to their head last year by their union lawyers in relation to the High Court settlement figures.

More recently, blacklisted workers (including myself) have formally raised their concerns with their union about trade union officials and their involvement in the blacklisting.

If trade union officials were involved in the blacklisting, then why was the union not liable to pay any compensation to blacklisted workers?

Independent Inquiry

It is now over four months since my correspondence to the General Secretary raising my concerns about the union's cover up back in 2005/2006, and other matters relating to the involvement of senior trade union officials and politicians in the blacklisting. This can be downloaded HERE.

Mr McCluskey rejected my correspondence by email stating that I was not a member of the union, which is incorrect. I have advised him of such, but as yet have received no response.

For those holding out for this so called independent inquiry, I would say the following:-

Please wake up and smell the coffee!

This is not going to happen!

There will always be an excuse/reason to not conduct this!

And if one is eventually conducted, it will not be anywhere near the level of investigation needed if we (blacklisted workers) are to eventually get to the truth of this matter.

For if it is found that trade union officials were complicit in the blacklisting, then that could possibly lead to significant legal claims from blacklisted workers against their union.

For more go to

ALAN WAINWRIGHT & THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY BLACKLIST

www.alanwainwright.blogspot.com

Unite & union collusion claims on blacklisting

 Rob Evans

@robevansgdn  Tuesday 29 August 2017 12.17 BST

Britain’s biggest trade union has commissioned a barrister to examine allegations that union officials colluded with a covert blacklisting operation financed by major firms to prevent certain workers from being employed.
The move has been ordered by the head of Unite, Len McCluskey, and follows calls by blacklisted workers to set up an independent inquiry into the claims of collusion, which is alleged to have spanned at least 20 years to 2009.
The barrister is to scrutinise documents that were disclosed in a high court lawsuit that led to construction firms apologising and paying compensation amounting to around £75m to 771 blacklisted workers.
Some documents appeared to show that trade union officials had passed information to the blacklisters, including private warnings not to hire specific workers they deemed to be politically awkward. Individual workers were labelled “militant” or a “troublemaker” by union officials, according to the files.
In signed statements, managers who ran the blacklist alleged that union officials wanted to prevent disruption on industrial sites and helped to deny jobs to some of their own members.

For more go to  https://www.theguardian.com › Politics › Unite

What Len McCluskey said about Blacklist Probe

GIVEN that the Unite general secretary Len McCluskey's recent letter outlining his proposal to review 'any evidence of officer collusion in Blacklisting', is now in the public domain we think, in fairness to McCluskey, it is worth recalling what Mr. McCluskey actually promised during his election campaign last December.  On Monday, 19th, December 2016, we on Northern Voices' published the following post based at that time on reports in the Morning Star and on the unite4len website:

Len McCluskey:

"I undertake to ensure an independent review of this new evidence when I am re-elected General Secretary of Unite and after the new High Court proceedings have concluded".

Full story and quote:

http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-ccd1-Blacklisted-activists-call-for-union-collusion-probe#.WFkHOZvfWhC

http://www.unite4len.co.uk/len-mccluskey-vows-carry-fight-blacklisted-workers/

Blacklisting Documents Review & Mr. McCluskey

 Editor of Northern Voices:
THE letter below was sent last Thursday by Len McCluskey, the leader of Unite, to the blacklist whistle-blower, Alan Wainwright, and to members of the Construction NISC (National Industrial Sector Committee) and to Unite Construction members of the Executive Council.  We publish Mr. McCluskey's letter in full.  This letter comes now following an earlier promise from Mr. McCluskey that he would set up an independent inquiry into alleged collusion by paid trade union officers in Blacklisting: 
 

24 August 2017 
To: All Unite Construction NISC members and Unite Construction Executive Council members

Dear Colleague,
Blacklisting Documents Review

As you are aware Unite have, since I have been General Secretary, put the full resources of the union behind supporting victims of Blacklisting. We have successfully litigated against those companies that engaged in Blacklisting, run a successful Leverage campaign and are now gathering evidence to tackle contemporary blacklisting.
There have recently been calls for us to consider all documents that have been disclosed in the High Court litigation to see if there is any evidence of officer collusion in Blacklisting. I have committed to undertaking that review.
Presently Unite have a further 70 plus cases being taken for victims of Blacklisting.  It is vitally important that any review of documentation does not disrupt that litigation. As such I have given instructions that a Counsel from Doughty Street Chambers be instructed to review all of the disclosure documents from the litigation and to provide a report for use in the current litigation that deals with general issues as well as the specific issue as to whether there is any evidence of officer collusion. This report will remain confidential whilst there is ongoing litigation but when that litigation is concluded it will be available. If there is any evidence arising from the documents it will be acted upon.
I have asked Howard Beckett to attend the next construction NISC to update the NISC as to the current litigation and the intended strategy of trying to get those individuals responsible for the Blacklist into Court.

  Yours sincerely,
   LEN McCLUSKEY
   General Secretary

http://www.unite4len.co.uk/len-mccluskey-vows-carry-fight-blacklisted-workers/

 

'BENT UNION OFFICIALS'!

from Alan Wainwright's Blog

 Friday, 25 August 2017

IT is common knowledge to everyone involved in the blacklisting over the last twelve years that the current Unite area official, Mick Tuff and the then General Secretary, Derek Simpson buried all my blacklisting evidence in 2005/2006, leaving me (a current member of the Amicus union at the time) isolated and alone with this, and allowing Ian Kerr and The Consulting Association to continue functioning.
 

The evidence presented to them was the exact same evidence, no more or less than eventually enabled David Clancy from the ICO to trace and close down the Consulting Association some four years later.

I have raised this with many Unite officials over the years and many senior Labour politicians (funded by Unite), who have all turned a blind eye to this.  

On learning about Mr McCluskeys' election pledge (to hold an independent inquiry into trade union official complicity in the blacklisting),  I presented an extensive report to him on the evidence I’d collated on the cover up, trade union official collusion and other very important and relevant facts.  I put it to him that the scope of this inquiry needed to be widened much further than just officer collusion. 

The report can be downloaded here: REPORT

The appendices can be downloaded here: APPENDICES

Mr McCluskeys' email response dated 24 August 2017 simply states:  

“Please find enclosed a letter which has gone out to all of our construction NISC”.

"I am advised that you are not a member of Unite and this is just to advise that my dealings on this matter will be solely through the official organ of the union, i.e. the Construction NISC and the Executive Council”.

The letter referred to can be downloaded here: LETTER

My report had clearly stated that I am a member of Unite. It also detailed my membership and branch number at the top of the page. 

Mr McCluskeys’ comment therefore strongly suggests that he had not even read the report, let alone considered the very important facts contained.

alan wainwright & the construction industry blacklist - blogger

www.alanwainwright.blogspot.com 

http://www.unite4len.co.uk/len-mccluskey-vows-carry-fight-blacklisted-workers/

Building industry blacklist whistleblower sues for victimisation ...

https://www.theguardian.com › Business › Construction industry 

Noam Chomsky on the Labour Party

by Brian Bamford

LAST Sunday, Trevor Hoyle wrote a comment on the 'McCluskey states the obvious' post on this N.V. Blog in which he claimed:
'Not clear what your position is Brian. "McCluskey states the obvious" -- well it is obvious because it's true that the vast majority of the mainstream corporate media are, and always have been, against Corbyn. ANY leader, no matter who, with such a sustained campaign of vitriol waged against him, including the so-called left-of-centre Guardian, would have struggled to overcome such a negative media image. '
Earlier this month dealing with the relative unpopularity of the British Labour Party, Noam Chomsky admitted to an interviewer:
'... that the current polling position suggested Labour was not yet gaining popular support for the policy positions that he supported.' 
Only last Saturday, Joshua Chaffin, in the Financial Times said that the polls 'suggest Mrs May is cruising toward a big victory on June 8.'
But by yesterday, with news that the 'dementia tax' was hitting the conserative party hard on the doorstep, Mrs May rewrote a major item in her election manifesto - social care reform - after four days of pressure; leaving her open to the accusations of show bad political judgement and being weak when the heat is on.
Meanwhile, over the weekend the polls showed that Labour under Corbyn, was closing the gap on the Tories.  Yet, still the Corbyn approach lacks charisma.
Professor Chomsky described to The Guardian what he thought was wrong:
' "If I were a voter in Britain, I would vote for him,” said Chomsky, who admitted that the current polling position suggested Labour was not yet gaining popular support for the policy positions that he supported.'
Pro. Chomsky then added:
'There are various reasons for that – partly an extremely hostile media, partly his own personal style which I happen to like but perhaps that doesn’t fit with the current mood of the electorate,'  he said. 'He’s quiet, reserved, serious, he’s not a performer.  The parliamentary Labour party has been strongly opposed to him.  It has been an uphill battle.'
Trevor Hoyle in his comment complains:
'I don't think Corbyn or McDonnell are dull at all.  They state their case and explain their policies in adult, measured tones.  To expect them to go all showbiz and join the media frenzy is to support exactly what is wrong with the political climate in this country.'
It might well be that a serious tone is preferable to those who read The Guardian like Trevor Hoyle, or The New York Times like me, but most of the people in the towns and cities in the North of England where the working-class target voters reside don't read these papers, and these people judging from what we are hearing prefer what Cyril Smith used to call Razzamataz than the kind of sombre socialism we might fancy.
When asked what motivation he thought newspapers had to oppose Corbyn, Chomsky said the Labour leader had, like Bernie Sanders in the US, broken out of the 'elite, liberal consensus' that he claimed was 'pretty conservative'.
Chomsky told Anushka Asthana, The Guardian Political Editor on Wednesday on 10 May 2017, that 'Labour needed to "reconstruct itself" in the interests of working people, with concerns about human and civil rights at its core, arguing that such a programme could appeal to the majority of people.'
Chomsky talks of the need for socio-economic programmes and the way the key defence against the existential threats of climate change and the nuclear age were being radically weakened, and then goes on to describe what he wants is the defence as a 'functioning democratic society with engaged, informed citizens deliberating and reaching measures to deal with and overcome the threats'.
This is all well and good, but the circles I move in among my neighbours  and other working people, I don't find much genuine concern about the kind of things that might concern Chomsky, Trevor Hoyle and me, like 'human rights'; 'civil rights'; or even the environment generally.
The great academic, Noam Chomsky who often describes himself as 'a kind of anarchist', and who is in Britain to deliver a lecture at the University of Reading on what he believes is the deteriorating state of western democracy, claimed that voters had turned to the Conservatives in recent years because of  'an absence of anything else'.
What the good professor ought to understand is that the left in this country since the Chartists, has rarely had a program or a strategy for social change which in any way will convince or inspire ordinary people, instead it continues to react to an aganda set by the establishment and the State.  Marching, protesting and demonstrating against cuts; Trade Union Acts; privatisation and the erosion of the NHS is all that the left reacts to.  There is very little vison on the British left, and that is why the right in this country these days always tends to have the initiative.

Celebrations at Boot & Flogger Premature!

PRIVATE EYE (5th, May) reporting on the victory of Len McCluskey in his bid to hold the top job in Unite said that '...celebrations were premature.  The far left saw its majority slashed on the Unite executive council last week.'
It seems that after his win McCluskey, other Unite officers, and Corbyn's head of strategy and communications, Seimas Milne, 'decanted to the Boot and Flogger wine bar near London Bridge to celebrate their victory', where they enjoyed 'bottle after bottle of champaigne (the chepest of which costs £47 a pop, according to the wine list).'  The Eye claims:
'Handily for McCluskey, the Boot and Flogger is just a short stagger from the Borough Market flat Unite decided its members should buy for McCluskey with £400,000 of their hard earned money.'
Before the election, the left-wing group had around 80% of the ruling body's 63 seats.  But that has now been reduced to 54%, with 39 new members representing United Left, and 32 independents.
The result is significant because any changes to Unite's rules must be backed by 75% of Executive Council members.
Now according to the PoliticsHome website a Unite source has said:  'United Left have lost a lot of seats and they have a shaky majority. It means Len McCluskey has lost the ability to change rules, which he had before. He no longer has a pliable EC.'
Electoral Reform Services report into the Unite Executive Council elections shows that turnout for the EC section of the ballot was less than 10% across the country.  For the general secretary election, a total of 1,062,049 ballot papers were sent out to union members, but only 130,071 were returned - a turnout of 12.2%.
Labour MP, John Spellar has already referred branch nominations to the trade union certification officer.  More challenges under trade union election law could be in the pipeline.