Fighting the Blacklist

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The last three decades have seen a systematic erosion of workers’ rights, with a deliberate undermining of trade unions, leading to a precarious, casualised labour force at the mercy of their employers. One way in which workers can fight back is by documenting unscrupulous working practices, and their opposition to them.

Radical Film Network Scotland is highlighting this growing trend with a programme of short films made by trade union members.

Dave Smith has been a leading figure in taking on and exposing these injustices, and written a book about these experiences. He is a founding member of the Blacklist Support Group, a justice campaign and support network who uncovered the fact that building contractors had for decades compiled a secret database of union members in the UK construction industry, and blacklisted anyone who had raised concerns about their working practices.

I asked Dave some questions about the work of the group.

How did the Blacklist Support Group form?

After the blacklist was discovered, those of us who had received our files held a meeting in the Westminster parliament that was chaired by John McDonnell. There were about 8-10 of us in total, and we agreed to set up an informal support group to share information and feed into the discussions by the then Labour government about the new Blacklisting Regs. We all thought it would be a very short lived campaign – over and done with in a few months at most. I agreed to be the temporary secretary – that was 7 years ago!

When and how did you become aware of the existence of the blacklist?

The blacklist was an open secret in the building industry for decades. Bosses used to brag about making sure you never worked again. Union activists were always being repeatedly sacked for refusing work, so anecdotally we all knew it was going on. But it was confirmed in 2009 when the ICO raided the offices of a previously unheard of organisation called the Consulting Association abd found files kept on 3213 individuals.

What do you consider to have been the worst abuses carried out by companies?

Collectively, directors of some of the biggest construction companies in Europe have covertly organised a human rights conspiracy for over 40 years. They held secret meetings in which senior police officers spying on so called ‘domestic extremists’ were invited to give Powerpoint presentations. Their secret database was used to deny hard working men and women the ability to work. This caused family hardship, marriage breakdowns and even contributed to suicides.

And what were we being spied on for? Complaining about unpaid wages and raising concerns about safety on building sites. Workers were added to the blacklist because they organised petitions against homelessness, and a professor was added after he carried out research into safety in the North Sea after the Piper Alpha disaster.

What victories have you achieved through the campaign?

We have fought the campaign politically, legally and through direct industrial action.

7 years ago the firms denied everything and refused to even offer us a penny in compensation. Now they have been forced to admit their guilt and apologise in the High Court and in parliament, and we have cost them close to quarter of a billion pounds in compensation and legal costs.

We have exposed the conspiracy, changed the law and have got cases lodged at the ECHR.

We won a year long battle to get Frank Morris reinstated after he was blacklisted from Crossrail – he is back working on the job still to this day. The direct action approach the campaign has adopted has been a catalyst for the resurgence of industrial militancy in construction.

How do you think the Trade Union Bill will affect matters?

The TU Bill is going to force all unions to provide a list of names to the police of those organising perfectly lawful picketing. This information will no doubt be collated on a database on police computers. Given that we now know the police were involved in sharing information with the Consulting Association, this raises a justified fear of a state sponsored blacklist of union members who have done nothing more than carry out perfectly lawful union activities.

The book Blacklisted is available here.

You can watch a short film about the Blacklist Support Group here.