Building Firms Blacklist - Same Old Story
wsca | 06.03.2009 11:58 | Globalisation | Repression | Workers' Movements
The information watchdog has shut down a company which it says sold workers’ confidential data, including union activities, to building firms.
Billion- Pound Building Firms Blacklist Workers
The ICO said a secret system was run for over 15 years enabling employers to unlawfully vet job applicants.
Comments entered against individuals’ names included such entries as “lazy and a trouble stirrer”, “ex-shop steward… definite problems… No Go” and “Communist Party”.
They have always been at it
Those with any knowledge of how bitterly capitalists fight any kind of organised workforce will not be surprised that firms like Taylor Woodrow, Laing O’Rourke and Balfour Beatty used the blacklist created by “The Consulting Association” (full list at the bottomof article).
The Consulting Association ( Ran by Ian Kerr) is to be prosecuted under the Data Protection Act, but blacklisting, as such, is not a crime.
The Information Commissioner’s office has already said that the firms listed above will not face prosecution, just a warning that they will, maybe,next time they do it.
I bet that’s got them worried.
In fact, knowledge of the construction industry blacklist has been known since Alan Wainwright, a former director of Balfour Beatty subsidiary Haden Young, produced the lists as part of a constructive dismissal claim against his former employers in 2000.
Many of the workers, involved with major construction site disputes in the 1990’s (like the Jubilee line extension) found it impossible to get work.
During the 1980s Balfour Beatty’s then parent company, BICC, gave £90,000 to anti-union bosses’ organisations such as Aims of Industry and the Economic League.
The Economic League, was founded in 1919 by a group of industrialists and then MP William Reginald Hall under the name of National Propaganda. Its chief function was to promote the point of view of industrialists and businessmen.
They later worked with MI5 to blacklist workers who they suspected of association with certain left wing groups, ranging from the Communist Party of Great Britain to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Mandelson said of the current scandal : “The information commissioner will need to look into this further to see whether these practices are more widespread and take the appropriate action” i.e. fuck all as far as he’s concerned.
Mandelson - Slimey as Ever (Nice one, Leila !)
I’m sure his obsession to sell off part of the Royal Mail has nothing to do with they are the UK’s most ready-to-strike workforce. Equally, I’m sure he’ll be getting very, very cross at the next dinner party he has with his business exec mates.
Full List of Blacklisting Firms :
* Amec Building
* Amec Construction
* Amec Facilities
* Amec Ind Div
* Amec Process & Energy
* Amey Construction – Ex Member
* B Sunley & Sons – Ex Member
* Balfour Beatty
* Balfour Kilpatrick
* Ballast (Wiltshire) – Ex Member
* Bam Construction (HBC Construction)
* Bam Nuttall (Edmund Nuttall)
* C B & I
* Cleveland Bridge UK
* Costain UK
* Crown House Technologies (Carillion/Tarmac Const)
* Diamond M & E Services
* Dudley Bower & Co – Ex Member
* Emcor (Drake & Scull) - ‘Ex Ref’
* Emcor Rail
* G Wimpey – Ex Member
* Haden Young
* Kier
* John Mowlem -Ex Member
* Laing O’Rourke (Laing)
* Lovell Construction (UK) – Ex Member
* Miller Construction – Ex Member
* Morgan Ashurst
* Morgan Est
* Morrison Construction Group –Ex Member
* N G Bailey
* Shepherd Engineering Services
* Sias Building Services
* Sir Robert McAlpine
* Skanska (Kvaerner/Trafalgar House)
* SPIE (Matthew Hall) - Ex Member
* Taylor Woodrow Construction – Ex Member
* Turriff Construction –Ex Member
* Tysons Contractors – Ex Member
* Walter Llewellyn & Sons - Ex Member
* Whessoe Oil & Gas
* Willmott Dixon – Ex Member
* Vinci PLC (Norwest Holst Group)
The ICO said a secret system was run for over 15 years enabling employers to unlawfully vet job applicants.
Comments entered against individuals’ names included such entries as “lazy and a trouble stirrer”, “ex-shop steward… definite problems… No Go” and “Communist Party”.
They have always been at it
Those with any knowledge of how bitterly capitalists fight any kind of organised workforce will not be surprised that firms like Taylor Woodrow, Laing O’Rourke and Balfour Beatty used the blacklist created by “The Consulting Association” (full list at the bottomof article).
The Consulting Association ( Ran by Ian Kerr) is to be prosecuted under the Data Protection Act, but blacklisting, as such, is not a crime.
The Information Commissioner’s office has already said that the firms listed above will not face prosecution, just a warning that they will, maybe,next time they do it.
I bet that’s got them worried.
In fact, knowledge of the construction industry blacklist has been known since Alan Wainwright, a former director of Balfour Beatty subsidiary Haden Young, produced the lists as part of a constructive dismissal claim against his former employers in 2000.
Many of the workers, involved with major construction site disputes in the 1990’s (like the Jubilee line extension) found it impossible to get work.
During the 1980s Balfour Beatty’s then parent company, BICC, gave £90,000 to anti-union bosses’ organisations such as Aims of Industry and the Economic League.
The Economic League, was founded in 1919 by a group of industrialists and then MP William Reginald Hall under the name of National Propaganda. Its chief function was to promote the point of view of industrialists and businessmen.
They later worked with MI5 to blacklist workers who they suspected of association with certain left wing groups, ranging from the Communist Party of Great Britain to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Mandelson said of the current scandal : “The information commissioner will need to look into this further to see whether these practices are more widespread and take the appropriate action” i.e. fuck all as far as he’s concerned.
Mandelson - Slimey as Ever (Nice one, Leila !)
I’m sure his obsession to sell off part of the Royal Mail has nothing to do with they are the UK’s most ready-to-strike workforce. Equally, I’m sure he’ll be getting very, very cross at the next dinner party he has with his business exec mates.
Full List of Blacklisting Firms :
* Amec Building
* Amec Construction
* Amec Facilities
* Amec Ind Div
* Amec Process & Energy
* Amey Construction – Ex Member
* B Sunley & Sons – Ex Member
* Balfour Beatty
* Balfour Kilpatrick
* Ballast (Wiltshire) – Ex Member
* Bam Construction (HBC Construction)
* Bam Nuttall (Edmund Nuttall)
* C B & I
* Cleveland Bridge UK
* Costain UK
* Crown House Technologies (Carillion/Tarmac Const)
* Diamond M & E Services
* Dudley Bower & Co – Ex Member
* Emcor (Drake & Scull) - ‘Ex Ref’
* Emcor Rail
* G Wimpey – Ex Member
* Haden Young
* Kier
* John Mowlem -Ex Member
* Laing O’Rourke (Laing)
* Lovell Construction (UK) – Ex Member
* Miller Construction – Ex Member
* Morgan Ashurst
* Morgan Est
* Morrison Construction Group –Ex Member
* N G Bailey
* Shepherd Engineering Services
* Sias Building Services
* Sir Robert McAlpine
* Skanska (Kvaerner/Trafalgar House)
* SPIE (Matthew Hall) - Ex Member
* Taylor Woodrow Construction – Ex Member
* Turriff Construction –Ex Member
* Tysons Contractors – Ex Member
* Walter Llewellyn & Sons - Ex Member
* Whessoe Oil & Gas
* Willmott Dixon – Ex Member
* Vinci PLC (Norwest Holst Group)
wsca
Homepage:
http://westsideclimateaction.wordpress.com
Comments
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Incomplete List of Blacklisting Firms
07.03.2009 13:38
In the oil industry the individual oil rig manager is responsible for blacklisting, by simply refusing to deal with any employee again that employee is effectively banned from every oil platform. Highlighting a safety issue is enough to get you canned. The terminology used, 'Not Required Back' or NRB is specific to that industry but really applies to everyone who has been blacklisted. The OILC have done good work opposing this in the North Sea.
You get a better idea of how blacklisting works by asking people who believe themselves to be blacklisted why they think that, and what their supposed offence was. In one occassion I have come across the person was told it was because they had signed a CND petition. One thing they never know is which particular company has blacklisted them, so congratulations to the ICO for busting this one company. They won't be able to bust all the blacklisting companies though as seemingly Caprim get around the DP act by only keeping written records.
Danny