NSSN Staffordshire calls for blackilisting firm Keir’s council contract to be scrapped

The National Shop Stewards Network Staffordshire welcomes the motion (below) moved by City council leader Mohammed Pervez and seconded by Councillor Crowe at the full city council meeting on 4 July 2013. All attempts to stop the blacklisting and victimisation of workers should be supported.

“That this Council notes and supports the campaign by Unite the Union to stamp out the deplorable practice of ‘blacklisting’ of individuals because of their affiliation and association to a trade union within the construction industry. Blacklisting is a national scandal and too many construction workers have had their lives ruined just because they had legitimate concerns over health and safety in one of Britain’s most dangerous industries or just because they belonged to a trade union.
The Council expects our joint venture partners or any organisation or contractor working with or on behalf of the council to have a zero tolerance policy towards this practice and if applicable to be co-signatories to the Construction Industry Joint Council Working Rules Agreement which aims to ensure that this practice is not prevalent in the construction industry.
This Council will take every legitimate step necessary to ensure that the City Council never knowingly engages or contracts with a company that operates a blacklist or has been found to operate a blacklist.”

But passing motions alone will not eradicate this practise which has been proved to be rife within the construction industry.
Words are of course important but actions are what matters. Keir is one of 44 blacklisting companies who subscribed to the Consulting Association. This ‘Association’ complied a national list of construction workers who it deemed as ‘undesirable’ for companies to check out who they were hiring. Many construction workers who were on this secret list have never since found work in the industry.
Keir have said that,
“The activities of the now-disbanded consulting association are both historic and regrettable.”
NSSN Staffordshire organiser Andy Bentley, responded to this by saying, “But the activities of the consulting agency and Keir are anything but of ‘historic’ interest for the more than 3,000 construction workers who were proved to be blacklisted. It’s only too current for those who have never worked since and are still being prevented from finding work today.”
“Therefore the Staffordshire area of the National Shop Stewards Network is calling on the city council to act on their motion by cancelling their contract with Keir and instead employing Keir workers directly with the council to safeguard jobs.”