BATTLES continue in the construction industry following the exposure of ballot rigging by the right wing in UCATT, the building workers union, and a swing to the left in the elections for the union executive.
Following the victory of the left, a dozen UCATT full time officials. including several national officials, have left the union. They are now attempting to take a section of the membership with them.
Initial moves to take them into the General and Municipal workers union, the GMB, came to nothing after right wing defectors joined Eric Hammond's EETPU. Hammond announced that the union intended to create a construction section and begin to recruit in the industry.
The prospect of a business union intervening in the industry, in which it is traditionally hard to organise, has galvanised the UCATT leadership. The danger of Hammond striking deals with employers of the type now notorious from the engineering and printing industries is all too clear.
The construction union's leaders have now set out to build a 'unity alliance' with other building industry unions to counter the threat of the EETPU. UCATT chairperson Peter Lenahan said 'We are trying to bring all construction unions together...to protect our agreements and the of building workers everywhere' The alliance, backed by a number of unions including the TGWU and the furniture and timber workers (FTATU), notched up a first victory when a poaching attempt by the EETPU at the Sellafield nuclear plant was thwarted. Both the company, BNFL, and plant unions refused to recognise the breakaway.
attacks. They promise no significant reforms if they come to power, with the sole excep-