On Monday 24 September, workers and students protested at Lend Lease's London office in solidarity with the workers in dispute at the Queensland Children's Hospital construction site in Brisbane.
The office is heavily provided with security.
The security workers were OK with us. Maybe they're employed by subcontractors too. But they wouldn't let us into the building to deliver our letter to Lend Lease bosses calling on them to respect the QCH workers' demands.
Eventually someone - another subcontractor, we guess - was sent out to receive the letter on behalf of Lend Lease.
The office is at Regent's Place, near Regent's Park, in luxurious buildings redeveloped for the landlord, British Land, by Lend Lease itself. The contract for the redevelopment was worth £150 million (A$233 million) to Lend Lease. British Land's annual rental income from Regent's Place - where Lend Lease is one of the seven main tenants - is £51 million (A$79 million).
No expense spared for the bosses' offices! Lend Lease and Abigroup have a different attitude for more socially valuable projects like the Queensland Children's Hospital.
There, they grab every cent. It's taken a long time to convince them even to start negotiating about a decent union agreement for the site so that the project can be completed under decent conditions.
