Blacklisting fight continues
WORKERS, SEP 2013 ISSUE
July 2013: Unite continues its anti-blacklisting campaign at Edgware Road Crossrail site.
Photo: Workers
UNITE HAS continued its protests at Crossrail sites in London against the illegal sacking of a shop steward for trade union activities. The protests began at the end of August 2012, and since they started subcontractor EIS has admitted it acted illegally.
It has also emerged that since 2009 BFK (BAM Ferrovial Kier) has paid £70,000 to a sinister anti-union organisation for 3,200 names of construction workers, and that eight major contractors, including the head of industrial relations at Crossrail, have been involved in blacklisting, with the connivance of London mayor Boris Johnson.
At the heart of the dispute is the issue of dangerous cabling and insufficient safety equipment for workers on board a tunnelling machine. Unite has taken its campaign to the HQ of BAM in Amsterdam and to Ferrovial in Barcelona. At least one shareholder withdrew from Ferrovial after hearing Unite’s evidence. Unite will continue to target shareholders of BFK until they have a formal undertaking that the union can organise at Crossrail. ■