Blacklist Support Group secretary Dave Smith was arrested at Hilton protest

Blacklist Support Group secretary Dave Smith was arrested at Hilton protest   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Rob Williams, Chair, National Shop Stewards Network

Blacklist Support Group secretary Dave Smith was arrested on the peaceful protest of 40 construction workers and their supporters outside the Construction News Awards in the Hilton Hotel in central London’s Park Lane on 18 March.

The protestors, who briefly stopped traffic, were highlighting the disgraceful sacking of workers on the Crossrail project for raising health and safety concerns. For example, workers at Whitechapel were ‘let go’ because they wanted torches attached to their helmets, yet days later 13 workers had falls because it was too dark!

A protest took place there on 23 February. Afterwards there was a vigil outside St Pancras Coroner’s Court at an inquest into the tragic death last year of Crossrail worker Rene Tkacik. Over the last month there have been numerous protests with thousands of leaflets given out.

Public money

Crossrail is the biggest public sector project in Western Europe costing £15 billion, giving construction companies millions of pounds of profits. Yet workers are treated like dirt.

On 18 March, police were far more heavy-handed than before and we were suspicious that they were singling out Dave. His new book ‘Blacklisted’ has exposed the role of ‘spy-cops’, where undercover police infiltrated protest groups of construction workers and anti-racist campaigners. The book also reveals the incredible extent of illegal blacklisting of workers by companies, particularly in construction, often for the very ‘crime’ of making the sites safe. Scandalously, Dave has this month lost a test case on blacklisting because he was employed by an agency.

The police had promised protestors that Dave would be released from the police van because the protest had left the road. But instead they drove him to Paddington Green station where he was detained for six hours before being released in the early hours of the morning. He was eventually charged with obstructing the highway.

On his release, Dave said: “When multinational construction firms sack our safety reps and collude with the police to blacklist union members, they get away scot free. But if we protest about it, we get arrested.”

We expect a solidarity protest outside the court when Dave appears on 27 March.


Blacklisted: The Secret War Between Big Business and Union Activists

£9.99 plus

£1 p&p

Available from Left Books,

PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD

020 8988 8789

www.leftbooks.co.uk

[email protected]


Sacked for identifying a hazard

Crossrail electrician and Unite the Union member Dan Collins was laid off by contractor Skanska after he raised a safety concern. Dan spoke to the Socialist.

“I started work on Monday 9 February. They told me it was a three-year contract. A foreman showed me around – there was an abundance of work to do. He asked me if I didn’t mind working 12-hour days or weekends.

On the Wednesday I noticed 16-inch wide boards lying across a metre-high elevated steel section, over which Labourers were carrying materials in and out of the area. The boards weren’t fixed down. Someone could slip off the board, with their foot going through the grate.

I spoke to my Skanska supervisor. I put an observation card in. These companies promote a safety programme on site. But the reality is it’s all about ticking boxes and signing sheets to make them look like an ethical employer.

I told another foreman, but he didn’t want to talk about it. He said it was fine, there hadn’t been an accident so far. I then told the Skanska engineer – she asked me if I’d put an observation card in. I said yes, but we needed to do something straight away.

That evening when I locked up my tools, my supervisor complained: “I’ve been getting my ear chewed off about this in the office. You’ve been here two days. Stop going on about it.”

He said an observation card had been put in against me for using my phone in an unapproved area. But I was only taking a photo of the hazard as no one was listening!

‘Downturn’

On Friday the agency called saying there’d been a downturn of work and I was no longer needed. But before there was three years of work!

I spoke to the health and safety manager and project manager. They said they were aware of the issue but were not going to change anything. They said I wasn’t laid off for raising health and safety but due to a downturn.

I went back to site to finish my shift, but the fingerprint scanner had stopped allowing me access. The security guard let me in, but the foreman then escorted me off site.

The worker facilities were across the road. My supervisor was with another guy. They stood either side of me while I got changed and packed, then escorted me out the door.

If they had nothing to hide as a business, if they weren’t sacking me for raising health and safety issues, then why was I having my shift cut short and being escorted off the job?

They’ve got their own health and safety managers which approve any method they see fit. The only way to question their methods is to have a unionised job with health and safety reps elected by the workforce.

I went to the Rank and File meeting in Glasgow, which voted unanimously for a campaign against Crossrail to get me reinstated, for union representation and direct employment so we get employment rights and national agreements.”


The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) has stood shoulder to shoulder with construction workers on protests against blacklisting.

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