‘WE demand a full public inquiry into blacklisting!’ Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary of Unite said while addressing the TUC conference in Brighton yesterday.
Speaking in support of ‘Motion 22 on Surveillance and Blacklisting’ Cartmail warned that it would be naïve to think that the construction industry had been ‘cleansed’ of the shameful and destructive practice of blacklisting.
A secret blacklist barring thousands of workers from the industry was uncovered in 2009.
The spying operation had spanned decades, gathering information from more than 40 British construction companies.
Based on this information, companies decided whether or not to hire staff based on words scrawled on colour-coded pieces of card. Union activists were secretly barred from work.
Backing calls for a TUC day of action on blacklisting Cartmail said: ‘Unite, along with sister unions and the Blacklist Support Group, have campaigned for better and tougher laws on blacklisting, winning the support of politicians in Westminster, Holyrood, the Welsh Assembly and councils the length and breadth of the UK.
‘This year, finally, conspirators were dragged to the High Court of Justice and hundreds of trade union members won financial compensation. The contractors say they are sorry but to this day they still shy away from the term “blacklisting” and still the law intended to protect workers is too weak and woefully inadequate. We demand better law and a full public inquiry into blacklisting.’
