The Blacklist Support Group (BSG) campaigns on behalf of workers who have had their employment curtailed or blocked due to trade-union activity.
It was formed in 2009 after a raid by the Information Commissioner’s Office on The Consulting Association (TCA) offices. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s data-protection watchdog. During the raid in 2009, it discovered:
a secret database on thousands of construction workers. The files in this shabby two-room office had names, addresses and National Insurance numbers, comments by managers, newspaper clippings. The organisation acted as a covert vetting service funded by the industry. When people applied for work on building sites, senior employees at Carillion, Balfour Beatty, Skanska, Kier, Costain, McAlpine and more than 30 other companies would fax their names to the Consulting Association.
Discovering the database confirmed long-held suspicions that trade-union members were being blacklisted in construction and other industries. Being blacklisted meant long spells of unemployment for hundreds of workers for engaging in lawful trade-union activity; it had a devastating effect on people’s lives.
Since 2009, at least £35 million in compensation has been awarded to workers affected by the scandal.
Following a complaint by the BSG, the police examined the possible connection between blacklisting and undercover policing, an internal investigation known as Operation Reuben. This revealed more evidence about undercover officers spying on trade unions and trade unionists. Thanks to that evidence, the BSG was accepted as a core participant in the Inquiry within Category [E], which includes trade unions and union members.
A core participant in his own right, Dave Smith, one of the group’s founders, has made written and oral statements to the Inquiry on behalf of the group. Six individuals in total belonging to the BSG have been accepted as core participants; Steve Hedley, Dan Gillman, Lisa Teuscher, John Jones, and Steve Acheson.
In 2020, the Inquiry revealed that former senior Special Branch Officer Bert Lawrenson headed blacklisting organisation The Economic League in the late 1960s.
The BSG continues to campaign on behalf of workers victimised for their trade-union activity. In 2024, the group called for the Inquiry to immediately publish all police files relating to blacklisting.
BSG also participates in the Unite inquiry into trade-union collusion in blacklisting and maintains a page on the Hazards magazine website.