The Hackney Citizen reports:

Only one Hackney apprentice on Olympics site: MP Diane Abbott slams low numbers of opportunities for local people

After discovering that only one apprentice working on the Olympics site comes from Hackney, local MP Diane Abbott has called on the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to address the low numbers of apprentices on the Olympic site as a matter of urgency.

During his recent foray into East London with the cabinet Gordon Brown once again played up the job benefits of the Olympics saying "Thanks to the Olympics, thousands of jobs are being created and protected in some of the industries worst hit by the recession - and in some of Britain's most deprived areas." Back in January he claimed the 2012 Olympics would create 50,000 new jobs, a considerable advance on the Compulsory Purchase Inquiry in 2006 when the LDA was saying there would be 6,000 net new jobs arising from the Olympics. With a budget of £9.34billion and rising, along with more spending to come after Games, there should indeed be some new jobs, but specifically how many, in what employment sectors and how many would have been created if the Olympics hadn’t happened? I decided to ask some Freedom of Information questions to see if the LDA could be more specific.

Listening to Bob Crow RMT Gen Secretary: .Photo © Martin Slavin

According to the LDA the four Olympic Boroughs, Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest lost a total of 93 companies employing 1245 staff as a result of the relocation of businesses. A total of 209 businesses employing 4964 staff were relocated. 25 businesses closed completely with a loss of 65 jobs. A further 10 businesses employing 54 staff are not accounted for.

A judgement made today by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) could mean that London’s Olympics will either be built on poverty wages or not at all as industrial unrest spreads, say Unite, the UK’s largest trade union.

Alan Ritchie, the general secretary of the construction union UCATT has warned that the London 2012 Olympics faces an "industrial relations disaster" if the Olympic Delivery Authority did not agree a common site rate for construction workers on the Olympic Park.

A drive to cut Olympic construction costs is threatening to suck in large numbers of “bogus self-employed” migrant workers, leading to widespread tax avoidance and blocked work opportunities for local people, ministers have been warned.

Britain is facing a huge skills shortage that could undermine the success of the Olympics. The country urgently needs thousands more electricians, plumbers and bricklayers if the games are to be ready on time. Even if it finds them, there are not enough qualified chefs, security staff or cleaners either.

The London Olympics is in danger of being tarnished by the use of cheap migrant labour said Jim Sheridan, Labour MP for Paisley & Renfrewshire North, as he moved a 10-Minute Rule Bill in Parliament on 13 June.

Workers from some of the capital's poorest communities may not benefit from the jobs created by the 2012 Olympic Games, a London Assembly committee has warned.

According to the economic development, culture, sport and tourism committee report, people living in the five east London boroughs surrounding the Olympic park face "very real threats" which could see them miss out on thousands of new jobs and training opportunities.