CONVICTED BLACKLISTER REVEALS ALL

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2013 :: RMTnews 4 Blacklister Ian Kerr told the told the Scottish Affairs Select Committee in parliament that he has been a full-time blacklister since 1969, earning a living preventing workers gaining employment. He was previously employed by the Economic League before he became the Chief Executive of the Consulting Association (CA). CA drew up a number of files targeting members of different unions including RMT. But the Information Commissioner Office (ICO) has only released construction industry files on GMB and UCATT members. Former Carillion and Balfour Beatty manager and whistleblower Alan Wainwright also 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. “I was blacklisted for giving information to an Employment Tribunal,” he said. In his statement Kerr revealed that Cullum McAlpine - Director of several companies within the Sir Robert McAlpine group was the first Chairman of the Consulting Association after providing a £10,000 start-up loan following the demise of the infamous Economic League. Sir Robert McAlpine paid Ian Kerr's £5,000 fine, solicitors fees, and costs associated with closing the organisation including redundancy money for the four staff to the order of £25,0000 in order to keep McAlpine's name out of the scandal. Kerr also revealed that police held regular meetings with senior members of the blacklisting operation with information flowing both ways. Kerr and other blacklist spies were sent undercover into union meetings Widespread blacklisting took place on the Olympics construction project by McAlpine, Skanska and Balfour Beatty. Kerr claimed that all documents and computer records have now been burnt or destroyed. However other blacklisting operations were in existence including Caprim Limited which was set up by the former managing Director of the Economic League He refused to answer the question as to whether he was part of the official vetting operation for Irish workers on MoD projects - after a long pause he asked if he could answer that question in private Dave Smith of the Blacklist Support Group said that Kerr was a pathetic figure that got rich and lived the high life by running an illegal blacklist that put thousands of innocent decent hard working people on the dole for years. “Kerr's actions took meals from our kids tables, he may feel no remorse but we are angry and we want justice. “It was the matter of fact way that he described the systematic abuse of power by big business that I found most shocking. “As if we were just an inconvenience in the way of companies wanting to make big profits,” he said. RMT is demanding the full disclosure of any remaining secret RMT files which include RMT activists Mick Lynch and Steve Hedley. CONVICTED BLACKLISTER REVEALS ALL ‘Pathetic’ convicted blacklister Ian Kerr admits details of his activities over decades to a parliamentary investigation PATHETIC: Ian Kerr, who administered a blacklist of thousands of construction workers on behalf of The Consulting Association, leaves Knutsford Crown Court. More than 40 firms were involved using a database of over 3,000 workers which was used to vet potential employees.