In place of Jack Jones...
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JAMES LARKIN JONES, CH, ex-docker, one-time soldier and now the retiring TGWU general secretary, said farewell to his comrades, brothers, sisters and colleagues in uncharacteristic fashion on Monday. This man, who has devoted his life to an ideal of modest cloth-cap socialism was, on this occasion, the centre of a display of opulence which even the most right-wing Tory demonstration could find difficult to match.
Not many years ago, when J. L. Jones opened the new Roadline — then BRS Parcels — depot at Dartford, he told his audience, "My old dad would turn in his grave if he could see me standing here with the bosses." How would his late father react to Jack's acceptance of the Companion of Honour, we wonder?
The years have changed the ex-Liverpool docker, not that he has yet mellowed as much as another socialist firebrand, Lord Shinwell, but that he should accept both the CH and a massive farewell demonstration in the same year, almost the same month, are surely signs that after years of battling he is ready now for some self-indulgence.
Jack's cloth cap image has changed of late. He now uses a chauffeur-driven TGWU limousine for official functions, which would surely have caused his dad to raise more than an eyebrow. To keep the balance right, he makes left-wing countermoves like visiting Cuba — the Communist school for "mercenaries" — just as the award of the CH is announced. A nicely-balanced manoeuvre that.
Nor has he lost the fire that took him from the lower echelons of the TGWU to general secretary. When heckled at the FTA dinner last year Jack Jones was more than a match for the opposition. He showed equal fire-power at the TUC a few years ago when his comrades on the platform attacked him in strength.
During the years, as might be expected, he has developed his skill as an orator — no doubt with tutorial assitance at weekend schools. His achievement in this field is more commendable than that of his predecessors. Television coverage of events featuring. Jack Jones has been an almost automatic requirement.
He has had to learn to present the correct image to the camera and the millions of viewers beyond it, and his progress in this field would do credit to a product of RADA. Should he ever find it necessary, Equity would surely not refuse him membership.
That is an unlikely possibility, though, because union rules debar a person from belonging to two unions at the same time. There is little doubt that Jack Jones will be a TGWU card-carrying member till the day he dies.
He is fiercely loyal to his union, and is very proud of his connection with it. Perhaps reluctant to admit it, he is also very proud of its development under his leadership.
There are many inside and outside the trade union movement who believe that the TGWU is both too big and too diversified. Certainly if Jack Jones called all his mem out on strike at the same t the country would sic grind to a halt. He will say such power does not belor him but lies in the hands o members.
Some would say that power of the general SE tary of the TGWU is gre than that of the Prime 1 ister.
There can be little den that it was Jack Jones's id( have a voluntary pay with flat rat' increases ac the board. it is confusing his idea should have coinc with that of Edward He But if the pay code has assi our economic recovery Jack Jones has earned acclaim he received Monday.
What now for road tr port, now that Jones has gi Strange to relate, he little to do with this side o1 industry. He has atten CMLDoY finals, he openec Fleet Management C ference last year and has dressed both RHA and 1 conferences, but at grass r level — to use one of his clichés — he has been apparent.
So when he finally hz over to Mostyn Evans, t transport will hardly no the change. The quiet-spc Welshman is no less dedic; a socialist and trade unic than his comrade from Li pool.
His interests have cen round the vehicle-building dustry rather than the side, but be does have tr. port connections. Jack Jor successor could have bee butcher, a baker or eve candlestick maker, so div are the activities of TGWU.
The man who will play increasingly important par the road transport side TGWU affairs is Jack Ashy Alan Law will leave the se next year, on his sixti birthday, but little will chai Just when it seems that fireball is maturing and r lowing, his career is ending Now that he is beginning understand management ; they him, the potential ente cordiale evaporates. 1 Jones-Heath pay cc thinking may have been close for the comfort of se but it was good for GB Ltd.
Moss Evans must strike new relationships with mi. sectors of industry, and hope he will do it with strife.