Monday 18 March 2024

‘THE COURSE UPDATED MY SKILLS’ Training fund for blacklisted here to help

 

‘THE COURSE UPDATED MY SKILLS’

Training fund for blacklisted here to help

Taken from Unite building Worker for Spring 2024  

Unite building Worker Spring 2024 


Paul Tattersfield, a blacklisted electrician, has become one of the first UNITE members to benefit from the dedicated Blacklisted Construction Workers’ Training Fund that has been established as part of the settlement against construction companies that used the Consulting Association (CA), an organisation that held a blacklist of 3,213 workers who were then denied employment.

 The fund of £230,000, which is not restricted to retraining in the construction sector, is administered by the union for victims of blacklisting who have brought proceedings through Thompson Solicitors, OH Parsons and Guney Clark & Ryan.

 As of 14 January, 17 grants have been made, where Unite members have been able to attend a varied range of courses after having received support from the fund

Grants have ranged from £3217 for two ten-day Electrical Maintenance courses, to £114 for Paul’s one day CCNSG Safety Passport renewal course provided by Humberside Engineering Training Association.

Other courses attended by members include NVQ Diploma Level 7 in Construction Senior Management and City & Guilds 2391-52 Inspection & Testing.

 In 2011, site worker Paul was, thanks to union legal support, awarded just under £24,000 for loss of earnings, injury to feelings and aggravated damages. This was the result of an Employment tribunal finding that Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Ltd had refused him employment because he was on the CA blacklist for being a union workplace rep for his fellow workers.

“I was just the guy who was the lay member on large construction sites who agreed to be an Amicus site representative. I took it seriously on behalf of the workforce who I wanted to see treated correctly under the agreements we had”.

 Balfour Beatty was amongst 64 companies who accessed the CA list and began following the exposure of the Economic League’s practices, that maintained a list of construction workers like Paul, for decades. The League was forced to close in 1993. The Consulting Association was forced to close in 2009 after it was raided by the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

 

Since 2011 Paul, a keen Rugby League fan, has worked for Balfour Beatty on two occasions, once via an agency, and, thankfully not experienced any problems. He has also taken on the role of a UNITE rep at some workplaces. “It’s just something you do as you need a voice on site. I think it is something to be proud of. I just represent fellow workers”.

 

The recent course he’s attended is the second occasion on which Paul has benefitted from a fund.

“I did the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) week long Electrical Regs course. It was intense. I passed. It updated my skills. This latest safety passport course will also help as it means I can continue working on large infrastructure construction projects which are usually better organised because of a union presence. Pay and conditions are generally better”.

Find out more

If you were blacklisted who not apply to the training fund? More info and a form is on the Unite website’s construction page http://tinyurl.com/3zvzszzw




PRICE OF PROTEST : Panama’s building workers leaders at risk

 

PRICE OF PROTEST

Panama’s building workers leaders at risk





Spare a minute to add you voice to the growing international movement to defend SUNTRACS, the National Union of the Construction and Similar Industries of Panama, whose leaders are being subjected to persecutory, repressive, and intimidating treatment by Panamanian authorities.

SUNTRACS, along with UNITE, belongs to the BWI (Building and Wood Workers' International), a global union federation of 361 free and democratic unions representing 12 million members across 115 countries.

Along with LabourStart, an online news service maintained globally by volunteers, the BWI has organised an online campaign asking Panamanian authorities to stop persecuting SUNTRACS and respect freedom of association! Unite members are urged to email Panamanian authorities. Messages will be forwarded to SUNTRACS.

The persecution of SUNTRACS leaders relates to their prominent roles in protests that defeated a 40-year mining concession for the transnational company (TNC) First Quantum Minerals – an extractive policy that would have caused grave social and environmental damage. Unionists are improperly being accused of terrorism.

Last year marked the biggest social unrest in Panama since its re-democratisation. Nationwide protests occurred against Law 406, which authorised a 20-year concession to the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals for open-pit copper extraction.

Opposition was based on its environmental impact, including contamination of water, air, and soil and the degradation of a highly biodiverse forest.

The second motivation was people's sovereignty. The contract was highly financially beneficial to the TNC allowing it to dispossess land arbitrarily. Sovereignty is crucial as Panamanians fought throughout the 20th century to rid the country of the United States-controlled Panama Canal Zone.

The general strike and mass protests were organised by environmentalists, indigenous activists, trade unions, churches, and students. Roads and ports were blocked for over a month. Security forces brutally reacted violently.  Hundreds were injured, over 1500 arrested and three unionists murdered.

SUNTRACS helped mobilise the protests, which ended when the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that Law 406 was unconstitutional; moreover, parliament prohibited all mining extraction, even annulling existing contracts

What a victory but the fight must go on. SUNTRACS is now being persecuted as the state-owned Savings Bank has closed SUNTRACS’ bank accounts.

SUNTRACS leaders Saúl Méndez, General Secretary, Jaime Caballero, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, as well as the teacher Diógenes Sánchez and indigenous leaders are being sued by the Public Prosecutor's Office, accused of allegedly committing crimes against freedom and the economic order.

According to Saúl Mendez, “this is a combined economic and political operation between the Panamanian banking system and the government. SUNTRACS is not even allowed to open new accounts in other banks. In the accounts that have been left open, we are not allowed to deposit the union affiliation fees.”

The BWI/LabourStart petition asks Panamanian authorities to unfreeze SUNTRACS' bank accounts and cease union-busting measures.

Further mobilisation?

 “We have been mobilising, distributing leaflets and will be developing actions that will intensify until it culminates in a strike, if this problem is not resolved”, said Mr. Mendez. “I want to thank the international trade union movement, especially UNITE comrades in the UK, for their solidarity with SUNTRACS. ”

You can sign the petition at:- http://tinyurl.com/3jp33epa

 

This is a slightly longer piece than appeared in Unite building Worker for Spring 2024

Thursday 14 March 2024

Suffragette and trade unionist Julia Varley to be honoured by a Bradford Civic Society plaque on 18 May

 FINALLY.... 

Suffragette and trade unionist Julia Varley to be honoured by a Bradford Civic Society plaque on 18 May

Bradford will honour one its greats on Saturday 18 May at 1.00pm when a blue plaque to suffragette and trade unionist Julia Varley will be unveiled at 90 Sunbridge Road BD1 2AQ  by retired bus driver Mohammad Taj of Unite the union and who was TUC President in 2013-14. 

The funds for the Bradford Civic Society plaque have been donated by UNITE’s NEY&H region and the union has republished the booklet Julia Varley - trade union organiser and fighter for women's rights booklet by Mark Metcalf.

Joining Mohammed Taj will be Bradford City councillor Sinead Engel, Simon Cunningham of Bradford Civic Society, Sheila Coleman of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign and councillor Taj Salam, a Unite bus workers rep. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has been invited to attend.

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As a teenage mill worker Julia Varley actively participated in the Manningham Mills strike of 1890-91.

She was to go on to lead a remarkable life in which as a leading representative of the General Union of Textile Workers (GUTW) she helped organise numerous workplaces in her home city and was active on Bradford Trades Council. In 1907 she was, as a radical suffragette, twice arrested and imprisoned for fighting for the ultimately successful, fight for the rights of women to vote.

When she moved to Birmingham, she organised many successful strikes across the West Midlands and the Black Country. She was key to the Clayworkers Strike in Cornwall in 1913-14 that paved the way for trade unions in the county. She suffered violence at the hands of the police for standing up for all workers, especially women.

When she was appointed as an officer for the Workers’ Union, she became one of the first women to be an officer in a mixed sex union.

In the 1920s, Varley was one of the first women to be elected onto the TUC General Council.  When the WU amalgamated with the Transport and General Workers Union (which later became Unite in 2007) Varley was appointed Chief Women’s Officer.

Varley retired to Bradford and died in November 1952. In 2013 a plaque was unveiled on her Birmingham home. Now she will be rightly honoured in her home city. If this is something you’d like to be involved with then see you on  May 18th.

The event is being organised by Mark Metcalf and Simon Cunningham and they can be contacted on 07392 852561 metcalfmc@outlook.com and 07891 913196 si-cunningham@live.com

Donations towards the production of a film on the events on 18 May would be welcome. Contact Mark Metcalf.

Wednesday 6 March 2024

HIGHLIGHTS FROM EP THOMPSON AT 100 event in Halifax in February 2024

 

On 3 Feb @calderdaletuc hosted a successful EP Thompson at 100 event & what follows are 25 minutes of highlights from the day produced by Dave and myself  

https://youtu.be/sPKxwMt-DBc?si=umNjY4k6sZnqEz7u




Thursday 22 February 2024

RURAL: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside - book review

RURAL: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside

 William Collins Books



Rebecca Smith’s work for BBC Radio for over a decade included researching titles for Radio 4’s
Book of the Week series and it is surely only matter of time before listeners will get to hear extracts of this engaging book by the daughter of a forester on the Graythwaite Estate on Ullswater that has been owned by the Sandys family for over 500 years. The aristocracy and gentry, many of whom have family links to slavery,  still own 30 per cent of England today and the imbalance is even worse in Scotland where Smith now resides.

Smith loved living amidst the iconic landscapes and wildlife of the Lake District. But she was fully aware that whilst, like many working class people in rural industries, her families “lives ran parallel” to those of the ancient landowners their “worlds were very different”.

In RURAL, Smith sets out to highlight, a “part of society that” aside from a magazine such as LANDWORKER “has been largely forgotten”. Drawing on her childhood memories, I enjoyed Smith’s highly revealing historical account of the countryside and, aside from my belief she should have spoken to, at least, one UNITE workplace rep from a rural setting (1) , her interviews with contemporary rural working class people. 

The rural occupations explored by Smith include working on the land as a forester, mining – which includes tales of its dangers– textiles, which replaced weavers, that enjoyed a good living in their day, with child labour and the rigorous discipline of the clock, tenant farming, tourism, with 16 million visiting the Lake District annually, slate and food production.

Construction also features prominently. In 1939 there were, following the 1936 Housing Act that gave local councils the chance to subsidise building agricultural cottages for labourers, 159,000 council houses for people working in rural industries in England. Today, there an increasing number of houses being built in semi-rural areas.  More are needed.

In her book, Smith rightly stresses how the countryside is still today a “working environment” but warns that many of today’s rural jobs are often precarious and highly vulnerable, especially, as is so for many migrant workers, when accommodation is tied into the contract.

There are though also larger businesses which, although Smith does not mention it, are places of trade union activity include the long established Sullom Voe oil terminal on Shetland, Sellafield on the Cumbrian coast and the planned Sutherland space port. Balancing environmental concerns with providing jobs is always going to be tricky. Some rural communities have, of course, inspired by the first island community buyout on the Isle of Eigg in 1997, sought to overcome these problems by taking advantage of opportunities to buy the lands on which they live. Just under 3 per cent of Scotland’s land is under community ownership and whilst ‘community buyouts’ in England have largely been for smaller businesses such as pubs that are 500 community land trusts currently that have built over 1,000 homes.

1.     I am also confused as to how the book manages to miss the importance of the Tolpuddle Martyrs or such as Joseph Arch.




Thursday 8 February 2024

Derbyshire miners and footballers who played for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday to be honoured thanks to campaign led by historian Mark Metcalfe and former Manchester United director Michael Knighton

 

Derbyshire Times 02 February 2024

Derbyshire miners and footballers who played for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday to be honoured thanks to campaign led by historian Mark Metcalfe and former Manchester United director Michael Knighton

Three plaques will be unveiled in Blackwell, commemorating two 19th century footballers and miners killed in an accident at the local colliery.

The two footballers that will be honoured are former Blackwell Collier’s, Billy ‘Fatty’ Foulke (1874-1916) and Willie Layton (1875-1944). Beginning their playing careers for Blackwell miners welfare FC, both men would go on to play for Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday respectively, leading both men to win England's old First Division and the FA cup with their clubs.

The unveiling will take place on Thursday 18 April. The plaques dedicated to the two footballers will be unveiled at Blackwell Community Hall. The third plaque will be unveiled at the village's pit wheel monument, displaying the names of seven men who died in a mining accident on November 11 1895.

On Sunday 25 February, there will be a meeting at Blackwell Community Hall where people can find out more about the unveiling and about the people the plaques will be commemorating.

Former footballers and Blackwell residents, Willie Layton (Left) and Billy Foulke (Right) will be commemorated with plaques in the village.

Former footballers and Blackwell residents, Willie Layton (Left) and Billy Foulke (Right) will be commemorated with plaques in the village.

Descendents of any of the men being commemorated are encouraged to come forward to be involved with the unveiling, as well as any former miners at the colliery.

The campaign to get the plaques installed in the village has been led by football historian and writer, Mark Metcalfe, as well Derbyshire born businessman and former Manchester United director, Michael Knighton – the great-grandson of Willie Layton.

Mark said: “It’s a combination of my personal passion to remember the footballers of the past and Michael Knighton’s willingness to fund this to make it possible, because of his great-grandads connection to the coal miners. So that’s how this has come about.”

Tony Gascoyne, a Blackwell parish councillor, was approached by Mark and Michael about putting these memorial plaques up in the village. The councillor described the plaques as being “massively important” to the village's identity.

One of the plaques will be unveiled at the Blackwell colliery pit-wheel monument

One of the plaques will be unveiled at the Blackwell colliery pit-wheel monument

He said: “I think if we don’t remember these people then they got lost to time, and nobody will actually know about what happened. I think we’ve all been guilty of living in the moment and not remembering what's happened in the past.

“We are a mining community and that’s been lost because of the pits closing and the open cast mining coming in after that. So our identity has been lost to a certain extent.”

Tony gave thanks to both Mark and Michael for all they have done to bring these plaques to the village.

The councillor said: “Mark’s been brilliant and very proactive in what he does, and Michael as well who has come along and funded the plaques.

“It’s been eye-opening to have the interest of somebody who's not really involved with the village personally, but who has got a lot of time to get things organised and push this forward.”

Michael is also hoping to see children from Blackwell primary school helping at the unveiling.

Once working for the Professional Footballers Association, Mark has helped to put up several plaques around the country, commemorating footballing legends of yester-year; including Frank Swift, Jimmy Armfield and Kenny Davenport.

For more details about the upcoming event either contact Mark via metcalfmc@outlook.com or Cllr Gascoyne at gazzaddr@hotmail.co.uk.

 

 

Tuesday 30 January 2024

'Bread not Bayonets'

 ‘Bread not Bayonets’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0UxMadnIEA


The story of Halifax in August 1842 when local workers downed tools to join a nationwide general strike for better pay and extended voting rights and found themselves ruthlessly suppressed with many killed and injured.

32 minutes long 


 Directed and edited by Francesca Platt and produced by Mark Metcalf.