Mild and bitter...
Page 46
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Amid all the furore of the suspension on TGWU from TUC for 60 minutes one point seems to have been lost.
Before an audience of millions on TV, Moss Evans — heir to the Jack Jones throne — said that unions could not control their members. It was possibly ignored because it was an all too apparent fact.
Nevertheless, Blackpool was an inauspicious baptism for the "new" general secretary of TGWU.
_ "I am not a sergeant major," he said, "who can order men to deliver the beer."
What a pity, because I think it was an ex-sergeant major who told them to stop delivering the beer.
But back to the discipline issue. If Moss Evans can't control the members in his new role, who can?
More than once I have heard Alex Kitson, TGWU no. 3, tell R HA members to control their members in the same way as he controls his!
Alas, the fiery wee Scot lost the battle for the TGWU's supremo post to the milder, but apparently less persuasive Welshman.
I wonder if Alex really meant that he controlled his former members at the Scottish Commercial Motorman's Union before it merged with TGWU? I wonder if he now plans to go round the corner from Transport House to a safe parliamentary seat?
He once asked me: "What is a safe seat?"
We'll just have to wait and see, because among AK's other qualities is his ability to keep a secret. . . especially his own.