Unite welcomes TUC day of action on blacklisting
Unite, Britain's biggest union, has today welcomed the TUC's announcement of a coordinated day of action against blacklisting on Wednesday 20 November 2013.
The day will consist of a lobby of the Westminster Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd, as well as a number of protests and lobbies across the UK.
The unions will be calling on employers which have, or continue to blacklist workers to Own Up, Clean Up, and Pay Up.
Unite has described the blacklisting of construction workers as a national scandal on the scale of phone hacking and repeated its call for a 'Leveson style' inquiry, as well as action from policymakers, to toughen up the regulations against blacklisting.
The union will be calling on activists up and down the UK to take part in activities to highlight the need for justice for the victims of this industrial scandal and to eradicate it from the construction industry and ensure that it can never happen again.
Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said:
"Unite is 100 per cent behind the TUC day of action against blacklisting and we will be urging our activists to take part to demand that the blacklisters own up, clean up and pay up.
"The burden of proof weighs heavily on workers who find themselves blacklisted and even where there is compelling evidence this is met with denial. Across construction there remains a staggering complacency, which must change.
"Unite firmly believes blacklisting continues and we need politicians to act. The only way to consign this morally indefensible practice to the history books is to strengthen legislation against blacklisting to give the law real teeth."
