Balfour Beatty have other friends in high places who’ll look out for them and make sure that no-one examines them too closely. It also helps that every time they’re caught breaking the law, the fine they have to pay doesn’t even make a dent in the company’s profits. But their best friend is their blacklist.
The existence of this blacklist is well known amongst construction workers. Over 3,200 names are listed on it, with comments such as ‘ex-shop steward,’ ‘Communist Party,’ and ‘do not touch’ written next to each one. A number of companies have bought information from the database, and have used the info to keep left-wingers and the trade union movement out of the construction industry.
More and more, construction contracts have time-limit deals written into them, where the company can be fined or sued for failing to deliver on time. This means the companies’ project managers want as much work done as quickly as possible. They don’t want to spend loads of time making sure everything is up-to-code in terms of health and safety. It costs money and wastes time. Or so the argument goes.
If staff complain, they have no real way of challenging management if there’s no organised trade union presence on site. Often the workers are well-aware of what their bosses are doing and the danger they and consumers are put in because of it, but risk losing their job and being added to the blacklist if they try to do something about it.
Now Balfour Beatty and the other giant construction firms feel so confident about having beaten the trade unions in their industry, that they’re attempting to dock the electricians’ pay by 35% and turn construction jobs into low-paid, unskilled positions. This is bad for the workers at the firms and members of the public. It’s time to hold these corporate shysters to account and stop them ruining anyone else’s lives.
