Friday, August 17, 2012

THE PEOPLE V BALFOUR BEATTIE – FRI. AUGUST 24 2012 11 AM HILLINGTON. BE THERE!

Our neighbours and fellow compassionate Scots. local employers Balfour Beatty continue to employ people off the street when current workers are on their redundancy notice and they continue to break our national agreements. Balfour Beatty are also major blacklisters of construction workers and union activists recently named and shamed after the raid on the offices of the Consulting Association.

Join with the Scottish Rank and File and the Blacklist Support Group in demonstrating against this despicable outfit at Balfour Beatty HQ in Hillington, Glasgow next Friday 24th August at 11am.

Let's together send a clear message to Balfour Beatty and the other blacklisters and wretches that we will not go away until justice is done, blacklisted workers are in employment and national agreements are being adhered to.


 

Some people talk about such despicable anti union anti worker practices as if they were the bad old days, unfortunately they are not. These union busting corporate thugs are still with us and make no mistake about it their aim is to drive worker's wages and conditions to as low a level as they can. They quite literally couldn't care less if you are struggling to put food on the table or buy school clothes for your children. These employers are the enemy; there is no other suitable word for them, not just the enemy of the Balfour Beattie workers or union members everywhere but the enemy of civilisation itself, the rat race is for rats and they are no better than that. What do you do with the enemy? You fight them, and fight them we will.

My Comrade and fellow Labour Councillor Jim Harte is an active Trade Unionist and he is involved in trying to outlaw "blacklisting" the practice is illegal but the authorities are doing nothing to stop
it. Let's give them a reminder that we are not going to go away we will stand and fight and we can start by supporting the protest detailed above in this article. Being a big company and known worldwide makes no difference when you have the morals of a rat, when the great Nye Bevan famously compared the Tories with vermin he was talking about people like Balfour Beattie. Time to fight back.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why did the last Labout Government not do something about this ?

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

They did. it was the last labour Government who outlawed blacklisting. Unfortunately or fortunately for some the present Government are dragging their heels about implementing the rules against companies who do this.

Byeck said...

That's Balfour Beattie sorted, Councillor, now, about the thirty plus miners shot by the Stasi in Sth Africa, without, so far, a word of protest from Mandela or Kelly.

Can we have your views on a regime that lets this happen?

Cllr Terry Kelly said...


Byeck said.----Saturday, August 18, 2012 7:48:00 PM

“Can we have your views on a regime that lets this happen?”

No regime should allow such things to happen including South Africa but they do don’t they. I doubt if either of us will live to see South Africa properly stabilised, such was It’s brutal experiences under white supremacist rule which left scars that will take a long time to heal.There have been very few if any places on earth where life was so cheap (if you were black) than Apartheid S.A.

Britain has of course been around a lot longer. You can go back a long way and find that the one thing that every Briton can share in terms of state sanctioned terror and unspeakable brutality is burning shame.

Read about the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya and remind yourself that this was only 44 years before the end of Apartheid. Prior to that our country’s biggest bogus hero Winston Churchill argued in cabinet that mustard gas should be used against striking miners in Wales.

We British have moved on slightly and we now sentence someone to 6 months jail for stealing a bottle of water and our police don’t unlawfully murder nearly as many people as they once did. They still of course continue do so with impunity, so “the good old days” are not completely lost are they?

Byeck said...

Kelly @ 12.01
Well done Councillor,that's the closest you're likely to come to answering a question.

Now, your thoughts on Putin locking up some young ladies who sang a less than laudatory song about him?

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

Byeck said..Kelly @ 12.01---
Sunday, August 19, 2012 1:31:00 PM

Unlike you I don’t have any problem answering questions I just can’t guarantee that you will like my answers.

My previous answer on S.A. clearly did not provoke any response then?

OK Putin? What can you say about this except that like the killings in S.A. I don’t feel well enough informed to take part in a serious debate about it. I suppose it depends to an extent on whether you believe what you are being told and when it comes to Russia I gave up on that CIA garbage a long while ago.

Certainly if you believe the coverage then you would conclude that the girls have been treated unfairly unlike the British water thief who was treated leniently right? Why did those evil Russians allow it to be filmed and all those people to speak on TV about it? Why not “Gulag” them? Something not quite right here lad.

Byeck said...

Kelly @ 1.31
As always Councillor,bang on message, but way off track.

Honestly hadn't heard about Winston and the mustard gas, but I'm sure it wasn't justified, even against the Welsh. Can you source the story for me?

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

Byeck said... Sunday, August 19, 2012 5:20:00 PM

I could source it but I won’t, You are being slightly unfair on the Welsh, my understanding is that these Welsh miners were not even singing! So what about the Mau Mau? That was the fifties.

Anonymous said...

This is what comes of the SNP building up 'guid scots companies'.

A very nasty business. And nowhere to blame but Scotland on this one.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

Some people would have you believe that Scots. don't do things like this.

Byeck said...

Councillor, Mau Mau were 50+ years ago, whilst the Sth African shootings took place last week.

As you point out, we've moved on, but clearly,the Sth African government hasn't.

And still no word of condemnation from Mandela. I hope that saddens you as much as it saddens me.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

By Byeck on THE PEOPLE V BALFOUR BEATTIE – FRI. AUGUST 24 2012... at 18:57

The obscenities committed by the British in Kenya took place after hundreds of years of parliamentary democracy and so called civilisation, modern South Africa by contrast became a democracy in 1994.

If Britain looks back there is India; forward and you find Bloody Sunday, we are in no position to lecture anyone.
Comments on Mandela’s silence are rather cheap considering his age and his withdrawal from public life several years ago. All those years he endured of hard labour and confinement by one of the world’s most inhumane regimes would have destroyed lesser men. They could not break him though and it looks like his reputation will survive you and others like you. He is thankfully still with us, a monument to mankind’s spirit, bravery, and forgiveness.

At the age of 94 he rests safe in the knowledge that he is one of history’s greatest ever figures and an inspiration to everyone who believes in freedom and justice.

Byeck said...

What bearing does his age have on Mandela's refusal to condemn this massacre?

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

Byeck said...Wednesday, August 22, 2012 7:59:00 PM

"What bearing does his age have on Mandela's refusal to condemn this massacre?"

I had no idea he had refused to condemn anything, perhaps he condones it, what do you think?

Time to stop digging maybe?

Byeck said...

Councillor, you know as well as I do that a Mandela condemnation would have made the headlines.

And you still have a wee credibility gap regarding Winston, mustard gas and Welsh miners.

Back to the drawing board, son.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

Perhaps Mandela thinks these miners deserved to be shot and should have broken his silence of the past couple of years to say so, maybe you can find support for that?

You are the one with the credibility gap about Winnie. He was a drink sodden congenital half wit who would have been perfectly happy fighting alongside Hitler as against him.

Byeck said...

Kelly @ 12.56
A nonsense paragraph on Mandela and a change of focus on your,Winston - mustard gas claim.

You're struggling with this one, laddie.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

I always seem to struggle when I'm arguing with you don't I.

Lets just say I'm happy with Mandela and you can have Churchill.

Byeck said...

Kelly @ 1.45
Come on, anyone who married the awful Winnie, can't be all good.

But, as the ancient terrorist is in his nineties and has a demonstrably horrible taste in wives, I'll cut him some slack

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

Saturday, August 25, 2012 7:24:00 PM Byeck said...

“Come on, anyone who married the awful Winnie, can't be all good”

I agree and I have read that she had a torrid time after marrying him. I refer of course to ‘darling Clementine’ known in upper class circles as “old yo yo knickers Clemmy” Sorry to sound so crude but these were extremely crude people.

Re. “the ancient terrorist Mandela” You do realize of course that if you were to put every “terrorist” who went on to become honoured friends of Britain in to 10 Downing Street at the same time, one would have to go outside to change one’s mind.

Byeck said...

Kelly @ 5.45

Left myself wide open, didn't I...as always, factually inaccurate, but clever.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

Byeck.

I should charge you for these lessons but I have become fond of you in a rather sympathetic way. I think I would miss you if you were to quit. Keep chewing the pencil.