Catalogue Number
NMLH.2011.2.14
Object Name
Medal
Title
'Transport and General Workers Union 1930-1978'
People
Jack Jones, Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU)
Date
1978
Description
A round gold medal attached to marroon ribbon. The ribbon has a bar at the top with the writing '1930-1978'. The medal has the TGWU (Transport General Workers Union) monogram at its centre in black and white enamel. The medal reverse has an engraved dedication.
This medal was presented to the British trade union leader, Jack Jones (1913-2009) at the end of his term as General Secretary of the TGWU. Jones was born in Liverpool, and became a docker after losing his job as an engineer during the Great Depression. He describes being a socialist after reading The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists after being passed the book in workplace. Jones describes this as the method through which many workers became convinced of the need to participate in an organised labour movement. Jones joined the TGWU, became a shop steward, then joined the National Docks Group Committee, becoming general secretary of the entire TGWU in 1968. One of his achievements as a union leader was helping to establish the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) which acts as a neutral party to help solve disputes and grievances between workers and employers. By 1977, polls indicated that 54% of people viewed Jones as the most powerful man in the country, outstripping
even the Prime Minister and the monarch.
A committed anti-fascist, Jones also fought in the British Battalion of the XV (Fifteenth) International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War, and was wounded during the Battle of the Ebro in 1938. PHM's collection of medals from Jones are largely a mix of honours relating to his service in Spain, and acknowledgements of his service to the trade union movement.
