By Tammy Flores
September 11th, 2013 Edition
In July of this year, I wrote about an international protest for a member from UNITE, electrician and Shop Steward, Frank Morris. UNITE, a union in Europe, was advocating on Mr. Morris’ behalf. It was claimed Frank Morris was wrongly fired and “blacklisted” for pointing out health and safety concerns while working on a job contracted by Ferrovial, 407ETR’s parent company, in Britain. After a year being off work, it was announced that he will be returning to work on Monday of next week.
In a joint statement from Unite and BFK (Bam-Ferrovial-Kier consortium building Crossrail a project in Europe) said, “There has been no contravention of the blacklisting regulations on the BFK Crossrail projects” and added, “BFK acknowledges that the conclusion of the EIS contract could have been handled better.”
Quoting the “Socialist Worker” Dave Smith from the Blacklist Support Group said, “The legal system could not get him his job back, so we had to rely on our own strength. This was solidarity at its very best.”
There are many opinions on Unions here in Canada. I would say that in this case, the union worked very well for this man and his family. Now if only we had that kind of man power behind the 407ETR issues that exist here in Canada. We wouldn’t have to wait for years for things to wind its way through the courts.
