JACK JONES
Not the worst union general secretary. He appears not to have lined his pockets from members' dues, which makes a pleasant change. Damning with faint praise? Maybe, but any praise for a TU full-timer is a departure for this old grouse.
Fought in Spain; carried on in the class struggle after retirement, unlike his old mucker LORD Scanlon. Not a bad record when all's said and done.
The press has used Jack Jones's passing as an excuse to revive all that cobblers about "the overweening power of the unions" in the seventies. Speaking as a rank and file member of the T&G in the 60s, 70s and 80s, I have to wonder why that power, if it existed, was not used to improve our lot. The power of the unions at grass rooots was minimal, in the construction industry anyway. Because the union bureaucrats were invited to Downing Street for the proverbial "beer and sandwiches" the lying press can portray their organisations as having some influence over government policy. They were going there to make deals with the government and the employers' organisations, deals that gave very little to the people they were supposed to represent. Still the old canard is now firmly established. We were the enemy within, lazy, overpaid, strike-prone.
Lies, lies, lies!