Just to keep our feet on the ground UCATT General Secretary Alan Ritchie shows us what we’re up against – and he’s SUPPOSED to be on the workers’ side!
In an astonishing article in the Guardian Newspaper of June 6th entitled ‘Construction shambles on cards for London, says union’ Ritchie clearly shows who he blames for the state for the state of the construction industry and what happened at Wembley in terms of strikes and spiralling costs. And it ain’t the employers. It’s the workers what’s to blame Guv’! he’s saying. Particularly those who go on what he calls ‘wildcat’ strikes like those at Wembley and he also mentions illegal workers [bosses kill building workers – isn’t that illegal?] were found at Wembley for good measure. Then he tell us ‘bogus self employed workers [can anybody tell us what the f*** this means?] are poised to flood the Olympic construction contracts. And where these are used Ritchie says, we quote ‘Death and serious injuries increase, costs spiral, projects are finished late and work is beset by wildcat strikes’. He then goes on with more total crap about protecting the ideals of the Olympics. Does he mean the drugs, the cheating and multi millionaire elite athletes?
OUTRAGEOUS SLUR. HE SHOULD RESIGN!
It is a scandalous attack and outrageous slur on the reputation of building workers everywhere. He is also scapegoating the workers for all the horrific ills, including killing and maiming of site workers, which beset the construction industry in language that’s almost hysterical and reads like a very right wing anti worker rant and tirade! It’s bogus union officials like him we need to worry about!
FOR THE RECORD
Lets get a few things straight. Its major construction companies and conglomerates who completely control the building industry, and all the FTOs in it, including Ritchie, who determine the employment status of the workers they and their subcontractors employ. Be Directly on PAYE, SC 60 or the Lump. Workers have absolutely no say in this.
The strikers at Wembley were all directly employed and in construction unions and they only went on strike as a last resort when their jobs, wages and nationally agreed working conditions were under attack arising out of contractual disputes over money between Multiplex and one or two of their sub contractors.
And pray tell us. How can site workers who are the most exploited and vulnerable and don’t get holiday or sick pay or any other employment rights, as Mr Ritchie says in the article, and are the poorest paid on site, be responsible for costs spiralling out of control? It’s greedy and corrupt building employers, and on public projects corrupt politicians who are responsible for this. Remember the Scottish Parliament, from £40 million to £400 million, and no one arrested!
And how can these workers, which include many migrants, whoa re also the most disorganised, suddenly get well enough organised to cause wildcat strikes which beset major projects? And to accuse one set of site workers for being responsible for increases in the deaths of their fellow workers is despicable and reprehensible in the extreme. It is also unforgivable!
Major construction companies who completely control the sites they own or are custodians of are responsible for the death and maiming of site workers, including the killing of 80 last year which is a 25% increase on the figures for the previous year. And the HSE and all FTOs, including Ritchie, who effectively do nothing but talk about the killing and maiming are also partly responsible. They all have blood on their hands.
SCAREMONGERING
Ritchie is clearly trying to frighten building employers and the Olympic Delivery Authority into conceding Direct Employment which makes it much easier to do and to police check off deals [in which employers often pay the union dues of their employees and many workers don’t know their in a union and if they do don’t know which one!] and money this gives to the unions.
We are opposed to check off as it’s a form of protection money and some aspects are decidedly dodgy. And of course Ritchie also trying to scare employers into dealing with the likes of him and other General and National and regional Construction Union Officials and not directly with rank and file workers. Who just might render FTOs redundant and have the audacity to go on strike to stop the employers robbing and killing and maiming us to improve the piss poor basic wage rates and working conditions of the vast majority of site workers. We also think Mr Ritchie has the UK R&F BWC in his sights!
We don’t know how wild they’ll be but there will be strikes and site site workers will have to fight fulltime union officials, including and especially, like the UCATT General secretary as well as the employers to meaningfully advance on all fronts. Make no mistake about it!
