Attack adds to German site fears

A racist attack on a black British construction worker near Berlin was this week cited as proof of the tensions being created in Germany by unscrupulous firms exploiting cheap imported labour.

Plasterer Noel Martin from Birmingham has been left paralysed from the neck down following a racist attack at Mahlow, in the state of Brandenburg. He was injured when his car crashed after a gang of youths shouted racist abuse and threw a brick through its window.

UK union leader George Henderson, of the Transport and General Workers Union has called on the German authorities to protect British workers from such attacks.

"This brutal attack underlines the tensions which exist around many German construction sites," he said. "Foreign workers are being exploited by unscrupulous subcontractors who bring them to Germany to work below the nationally-negotiated wage rates for the construction industry. In turn, German construction workers resent what they see as the undercutting of their living standards by foreigners - 80,000 of them from Britain and Ireland.

"This resentment is fertile soil for the foul weeds of racism."

Henderson has written to the Brandenburg government and to the German ambassador to the UK drawing attention to the attack on Noel Martin. "In addition to tackling the economic causes of xenophobia and racism, I am seeking assurances from the German authorities that everything possible will be done to bring to justice the thug sresponsible for the brutal attack on Noel Martin," he said.

UK unions have been co-operating with their German counterparts in acampaign to fight the exploitation of foreign workers and their use to undercut local labour.