Shut The Sites

Following Boris Johnson’s speech calling on the construction industry to return to work, workers have released a video on social media that calls the government strategy social murder. The video was produced by the grassroots Shut The Sitescampaign, which is calling for the closure of all non-essential building sites and for all workers to be paid irrespective of whether they are employees, self-employed or agency workers. The video has contributions from 5 construction workers and a 9 year old daughter of a building worker being forced back onto site, but also features:

  • Professor Steve Tombs from the Open University who describing the new return to work strategy says “the government must know that construction workers are exposed to and unwitting carriers of coronavirus. In my view this is criminal negligence, its manslaughter, its social murder”
  • Simon Hester, an ex-Health & Safety Executive lead inspector for construction in London for 18 years (currently working on safety on behalf of unions representing building workers at the Qatar World Cup)
  • Professor Sian Moore, University of Greenwich who calls for all construction workers to be paid furlough money irrespective of their employment status
  • Mark Anthony, the Editor of the construction trade magazine Demolition News 
On the very day the Government urges all construction workers to return to work, the Office of National Statistics releases figure showing that keeping sites open has led to three times as many deaths of construction workers as healthcare professionals.
… Read on ...

Overcrowding on trains and Tube today

In the light of the crowds we have seen packed on station platforms, commuter services, and the Tube in London, Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, the train drivers’ trade union, said today:

‘Today was, sadly, a day every ASLEF member could see coming. Photos are emerging all over social media of Tube trains and commuter services packed with people unable to socially distance in line with government recommendations.

‘People are getting understandably angry. I am, too. But I’ll tell you whose fault it isn’t. First, those who are travelling on these services. Nobody, considering the risk to which they are exposing themselves, and their loved ones, would travel on these services if they didn’t feel they had to, either through economic necessity or because they are key workers. The reality is that nearly every single passenger has thought hard and long and worked out that if they don’t take these services, their boss won’t pay them.… Read on ...