Shut The Sites IWMD Body Bag Protest

At 8:30am this morning, building workers delivered body bags to the London Headquarters of the construction firm MACE . The symbolic action was carried out by the Shut The Sites campaign protesting against the reopening of non-essential construction projects and the watering down of official social distancing advice to allow workers on building sites to work in close proximity for 15 minutes at a time, which they argue will increase transmission of coronavirus and lead to deaths of workers and their family members. Social distancing was applied throughout the protest by the electrician, bricklayer, engineer, carpenter and union safety rep involved.  

The reopening of non-essential construction has caused outrage on the sites and has only been made possible because the official UK government guidelines for the building industry has explicitly watered down social distancing rules. Standard Operating Procedures have been written by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), a body comprising major contractors and chaired by Nadhim Zahawi MP, government minister for Business and Industry. 

MACE were chosen for the protest as Mark Reynolds, MACE CEO sits on the Construction Leadership Council and has reopened non-essential projects including luxury flats, despite originally describing the situation on MACE projects as:

"not compliant with Public Health England requirements... There is no way we can continue with the normal production rates [with] the two metre social distancing requirements” 

There has been an outpouring of anger on social media and the construction trade press, which has almost universally condemned the new guidelines for effectively providing a massive loophole for greedy employers to force workers back onto unsafe building sites. However, because of the long history of victimization and blacklisting those prepared to stand up for safety on building sites, concerned workers are often too scared to complain publicly. An electrician on a MACE project in Central London has been sacked for tweeting about the lack of social distancing on the site.  

A spokesperson for Shut The Sites, Dan Dobson said "Construction workers lives are still being unnecessarily put at risk from the watererd down Construction Leadership Councils 'Site Operating Procedures'. Contractors are already talking about extended site hours with weekend working coming up to bring delayed project back on programme, yet we are still within the Government enforced lockdown with hundreds of thousands of workers on site today. We fear that without a closure of all non critical works and a scheme to pay every worker, we will see a large number of construction workers added to the Covid-19 fatality figures."

An electrician from Manchester, Eddie Current said: "I can't leave my flat to sit on a bench in the local park with my daughter without the police threatening to fine me, at the same time as being forced to work within 2m of other workers for up to 15 minutes at a time without a mask, something isn't right here. I'm putting my families lives at risk every day that I go to site, I can't afford to not go as I have rent to pay, bills to pay and food to buy and I don't qualify for any of the Governments schemes so I have no choice. It's either take the risk or bringing the virus home to my family or risk starving and losing the roof over our heads." 

The MACE bodybag protest is just one of thousands of similar events taking place across the UK and worldwide on Tuesday 28th April as part of International Workers Memorial Day, whose global slogan is: "Mourn the Dead - Fight for the Living"  

For press interviews with the MACE bodybag protest organisers email: ShutTheSites@gmail.com 

For ongoing updates of memorials, protests and direct action taking place today search #IWMD20 #ShutTheSites on social media.

Note to Editors:

A full risk assessment was carried out before the protest which identified potential hazards and control measures were implemented to remove the risk

• Only 5 workers involved (many more wanted to attend)
• Event coincided with a trip to buy essential items
• 2m social distancing at all times
• Participants arrived by private transport rather than the packed tube 
• PPE worn

The protest with workers in full PPE could be deemed unlawful. The irony being that thousands of construction workers packed onto building sites across the UK is being actively encouraged by the government.