Renewed protests at Crossrail blacklisters

Unite members and blacklisted workers have staged noisy protests against firms involved in the massive Crossrail construction job. On 25 April, they appeared outside the Basingstoke office of construction and engineering giant Kier. Unite charges that the firm was implicated in the sacking of 28 workers for blowing the whistle over health and safety problems during construction work on the London Crossrail project. Kier is part of the BFK (BAM, Ferrovial and Kier) consortium running the Crossrail job, Europe's biggest construction project. Giant inflatable rats, posters and megaphones were used in the protest, with protesters urging directors of the company to come out and speak to them. Unite's Mick Duncan, using a megaphone, said: 'It's time to stop sacking union members off the job.' Viv Chesterfield, corporate communications manager for Kier Group, told local paper the Gazette: 'We, Kier, neither condone nor do we use any form of blacklisting which, we agree, has no place in today's business environment or indeed in society at large.' The protesters have vowed to keep up the pressure on blacklisting firms, noting 18 of the 36 blacklisters named in a parliamentary Select Committee report published last month (Risks 601) are now involved in Crossrail. A 2 May protest organised by Unite and the Blacklist Support Group took place outside the RAILTEX exhibition at London's Earls Court Exhibition Centre, where Andrew Wolstenholme, the chief executive officer of Crossrail, was the keynote speaker. Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: 'Unite is making it loud and clear that unlike Crossrail's chief Andrew Wolstenholme we oppose the immoral and illegal practice of blacklisting.' He added: 'Time and time again we have given Crossrail the opportunity to work constructively with us to implement a union agreement which would deliver stability and safety. Instead we have significant evidence of blacklisting on the site and a series of unacceptable and avoidable accidents with one worker being left with severe burns across his body.'

• Unite news release.
• The Gazette.