BLACKLISTING EXPOSED

14 S hadowy forces are trying to get a foot in the RMT door claiming to be film makers and journalists, writes RMT press officer Geoff Martin. Nothing unusual about people trying to gain access behind the scenes at Unity House and they are routinely told to move on and not to waste our time. The difference with Douglas Sinclair was that his organisation doesn’t appear to actually exist in anything but name. Shortly after his approach, RMT was contacted by Harvey Duke from the Dundee Unemployed Support Centre. Harvey’s outfit was engaged in a row with Iain Duncan-Smith over attacks on benefits, a fighting campaign that RMT had publicly supported. Harvey had also had a call from a Douglas Sinclair asking to get involved, and offering to make a film and claiming to be “100% on your side.” Digging in to some research the Dundee comrades found evidence that an operation with the same front-name “Citizens Network” had suspected links with an outfit called “Hakluyt”. So who are Hakluyt? Nothing less than a strategic intelligence and advisory firm founded by former officials from MI6 and with a track record of penetrating left wing and green organisations. One of their operations, at the alleged behest of Shell and Esso, included planting an operative inside Greenpeace, a guy called Manfred Schlickenrieder, who had a plausible back story as a former chairman of the Munich branch of the German Communist Party. So, while the security services have conspired over trade union blacklisting here’s evidence that there are the same shadowy forces out there trying to get a foot in the door of our union under the guise of being film makers and journalists. It’s a warning to all of us to remain eternally vigilant. R MT is demanding the full disclosure of the secret ‘RMT File’ held by blacklisting organisation the Consulting Association as evidence mounts of police and security services involvement in the targeting of union activists in the construction and rail industries. To date, the Information Commissioner Office (ICO) has only released construction industry files on GMB and UCATT members held by the Consulting Association (CA). Former Carillion and Balfour Beatty manager and whistleblower Alan Wainwright revealed a paper trail on Carillion's own internal computer database whenever workers were refused work in evidence to a Scottish select committee investigation in November. The trail refers to an RMT file that remains unpublished and which RMT says has been used by employers subscribing to the Consulting Association blacklisting services to wreck RMT members working lives in the rail industry. Moreover in evidence given by the ICO at the Scottish Affairs Select Committee investigation into blacklisting, the ICO has admitted that they only seized around 10 per cent of the documents in the CA office because their warrant only allowed them to close down the construction industry blacklist. When pressed by MPs about whether there may still be other blacklists left on the premises including in the rail industry - they said "Yes, there could be". The union is aware that leading RMT activists, including Mick Lynch and RMT assistant general secretary Steve Hedley, have already been victims of the blacklisting conspiracy and the union now wants to know how many other RMT members have had their lives blighted by the scandal. The union has also called for a trade union blacklisting website to be shut down as it is targeting union activists at all levels – even including volunteer union learning reps whose ‘crime’ is helping colleagues acquire skills, training and education. The blacklisting site run by HR Blacklist is run by Human Resources Consulting and purports to “tell the truth about employees” – in reality it is an on-line successor to the Consulting Association and its anti-union blacklisting activities. Numerous RMT activists and other union organisers are listed on the site. Although a search of the names on the data base is free, the detailed files are password protected and only open to subscribers. Names are listed on the site data base without any agreement in clear violation of data protection. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that it was a scandal that more than three years after this original information came to light that the union had still not received copies of the ‘RMT file’. “This whole murky saga, and the collusion with the police and the security services, has clear parallels with the Leveson investigations and RMT demands full disclosure and we will continue to campaign with the anti-blacklisting organisations for action against all those involved in this conspiracy,” he said. BLACKLISTING EXPOSED RMT demands publication of secret ‘RMT file’ drawn up by blacklisting organisation SPYING ON THE UNION