Hugh Scanlon, Baron Scanlon

Hugh Scanlon (1977)

Hugh Parr Scanlon, Baron Scanlon (born October 26, 1913 in Melbourne , † January 27, 2004 in Broadstairs , Kent ) was a British trade union official and life peer .

With the Amalgamated Engineering Union , he headed one of the largest trade unions in the United Kingdom from 1968 to 1978 and was considered an influential figure on the left-wing political spectrum. Confrontations with the governments of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath over planned restrictions on trade union rights in a first phase contrasted with his collaboration with the Labor governments of Wilson and James Callaghan under the sign of a social contract from 1974 . The fact that the former communist and avowed Marxist accepted peer dignity in 1978 was considered a surprise and alienated him from previous companions.

Life

Youth and start of union work

Scanlon was the second born son of Hugh Scanlon, an interior decorator , and his wife Anne, nee Prince. The couple emigrated to Australia from Salford in Lancashire in 1911 . The father died a year after Hugh was born and the mother, heavily pregnant with a daughter, returned to England with her two sons at the turn of 1914/1915 . The family moved into their mother's house in Davyhulme near Manchester , where they lived in poor conditions. A soap factory worker, Anne Scanlon had to work hard to raise her three young children. These childhood experiences shaped Hugh as well as the influence of his grandfather, a member of the Labor Party , who inspired the grandson to read the works of Jack London and Upton Sinclair .

Scanlon attended St Mary's Church School in Davyhulme and then Stretford Elementary School in Stretford . His academic performance was mediocre. During this time he contributed to the family's livelihood by delivering bread and newspapers. At 14, he began an apprenticeship with an instrument maker whose workshop in the major industrial park of engineering works Metropolitan-Vickers in the south of the Manchester Ship Canal located Trafford Park was where Scanlon should work over the next twenty years. When he was 17 years old, his union involvement began by joining the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU). In 1935 he became a works council and joined the League of Youth , the then youth organization of the Labor Party . He attended evening classes at the unionized National Council of Labor Colleges, focusing less on engineering and more on aspects that would be useful to him as an employee representative - knowledge of economics and industrial psychology as well as speaking and leadership skills.

Disappointed that the Labor Party spoke out against interfering in the conflict after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , he broke with his party in 1936 and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain . At the age of 30 he was promoted to the 1st secretary of the works council of the now known as Associated Electrical Industries machine works in Trafford Park and was now in a full-time position the highest union official for 6,000 workers. In 1947 he became the chief organizer of all AEU activities in North West England, based in Manchester. After he had run for it in the 1945 elections in Stretford, he resigned from the Communist Party in 1954, but took this step in silence and in later years refused to publicly distinguish himself from his former comrades. This fueled the suspicion of opponents that he had not really given up his communist attitude.

Left union leader

Time of Confrontation (1968–1974)

The AEU members elected the 50-year-old Scanlon to the board in 1963 as a representative of the left wing of the trade union. During this time, the union was marked by a strong increase in membership numbers and self-confidence as well as struggles over direction, which also ignited the question of how to react to the looming crisis in the British mechanical engineering industry. Under the chairmanship of the Catholic William Carron , the AEU was right-wing and anti-communist. The election of an avowed Marxist like Scanlon to the board was therefore controversial and led to a protracted legal battle, which Scanlon won in the last instance. In 1968, he then successfully challenged Carron in the election of the chairman and came up with the promise to resist the wage policy of the Harold Wilson- led Labor government. This represented a break with the line of close cooperation between the unions and the Labor Party, which had prevailed until then. His rise to the top of a union with a million members was seen by the public - depending on his political orientation - as a signal of hope or fear.

In the following ten years he developed into one of the most prominent trade union leaders in Great Britain, one of the last "Trade Union Barons", known - and feared in employers' circles - for his unyielding attitude in negotiations about higher wages, pensions and sick pay, equal pay for women , better working conditions as well as shorter weekly working hours and longer vacation including payment of vacation pay. From 1968 to 1978 he was a member of the general council of the trade union confederation Trades Union Congress and its committee on economics. From 1969 to 1978 he also served as Vice President of the International Metalworkers Federation and from 1974 to 1978 as President of the European Metalworkers Federation .

In Britain's politics and media in the 1960s, the conviction spread across party lines that the country's unions were too powerful and that the frequent use of strikes endangered economic development, especially with regard to the automotive industry, which is viewed as strategically important. Barbara Castle , Wilson's State Secretary for Employment and Productivity, therefore suggested in the 1969 white paper In Place of Strife a restriction of the union's right to strike by means of legally regulated peace obligations and ballots . The proposal split the government camp and Scanlon, who saw a red line crossed when interfering with collective bargaining , organized the union resistance in collaboration with Jack Jones , also left-wing Secretary General of the Transport and General Workers' Union , which embarrassed the government. Often quoted is an alleged quote from Prime Minister Wilson, said to have fallen during a meeting with Scanlon in Checkers during this time: "Pull your tanks off my lawn, Hughie!" That Castle's initiative ultimately failed is often associated with protests by the unions as well as the Labor Party's electoral defeat the following year. The partnership between Scanlon and Jones, dubbed "the terrible twins" by right-wing press, lasted for a decade and was the most striking example of such a collaboration between two influential left-wing unions in Britain since World War II .

As expected, the new Tory government of Edward Heath was even more determined than the previous government to restrict the rights of the trade unions. The result was the Industrial Relations Act 1971 , which, among other things, was supposed to curb “wildcat strikes”. Under the leadership of Scanlon and Jones, the union resistance organized itself, which consisted primarily of a series of one-day protest strikes that culminated in 1972 when more working days were lost in the country than since the 1926 general strike . Union members often simply ignored provisions of the new law, even though this involved paying fines. Although the latter eventually piled up to £ 140,000 for Scanlons alone (trading as the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers , AUEW since 1971 ) and Scanlon threatened to jail for it, the unions refused to give in - with success. When the Labor Party returned to government in 1974, again with Harold Wilson as Prime Minister, the controversial law was repealed and the AUEW's fine was paid by industrialists who remained anonymous. While the demand to preserve the rights of the trade unions had been in line with a long tradition, the phenomenon of the emphasis on extra-parliamentary forces and processes and the open breach of valid law was new. This further strengthened the conviction, especially in conservative circles, that a restriction of the power of the trade unions was of the utmost urgency - a breeding ground for later Thatcherism .

Cooperation under the sign of the "social contract" (1974–1978)

At that time, Scanlon's relationship with left-wing union members began to deteriorate. He was resented for having supported the moderate proposal for a social contract contained in the Labor Party's election manifesto , according to which the unions should promise restraint in collective bargaining to combat inflation - with the prospect of new social measures by the state. Some members of the AUEW interpreted this as “treason”, an accusation that struck Scanlon deeply at a time when he had just restored his broken relationship with the Labor Party and was preparing to work constructively with the new government.

He began to take up posts in organizations and state commissions, either as an official union representative or simply as a public figure. From 1973 to 1978 he was a member of the Metrication Board , which was supposed to prepare the introduction of metric systems of units in Great Britain, and from 1977 to 1979 the National Enterprise Board , an authority established by the Wilson government to nationalize large industrial companies. From 1975 to 1982 he was the first trade unionist to chair the Engineering Industry Training Board . From 1978 he worked with a commission to examine the quality of teaching mathematics in schools in England and Wales . These new roles were not without complications, as Scanlon's name was on a " black list " of MI 5 from 1966 to 1977 , on which allegedly subversive forces were recorded who were supposed to have no access to security-related information. The concerns of the secret service are said to have contributed to the fact that Scanlon's appointment to the board of directors of the British Gas Corporation (1976-1982) was delayed and his appointment as chairman of the newly formed shipbuilding association British Shipbuilders in 1977 was broken.

In 1978 - when he reached the age of 65 - he resigned from his position as Chairman of the AUEW. Shortly before, he had once again turned many trade unionists against himself when, against the will of his own delegation, but in the interests of the Labor party leadership, at a congress he “forgot” to vote for an initiative on behalf of the AUEW after the members of the House of Commons should face a binding re-election within the party. This behavior had been interpreted by critics as an arrogant abuse of his powers. Some see his withdrawal - like the almost simultaneous one of Jones - as a prerequisite for the collapse of the Labor Party's “social contract” with the trade unions that followed soon after, which resulted in the Winter of Discontent 1978/1979 and ultimately the election of the government of James Callaghan in the The 1979 general election paved the way.

Later years

Scanlon surprised friends and opponents when, at the turn of 1978/1979, he accepted the dignity offered to him of a life peerage as Baron Scanlon of Davyhulme in the County of Greater Manchester . Not only had he made negative comments about the House of Lords and its members - especially Labor members - in the past , but a few weeks earlier in an interview with journalists friends he had ruled out ever becoming Lord, as this would contradict his principles. The change in his attitude alienated him from many of his former companions and resulted in his not attending Labor and trade union meetings for years in order to avoid embarrassing situations. He decreed that no pictures of him in robe should be published at the introduction in the House of Lords.

He remained aloof from the Chamber and his role in it, only occasionally took part in meetings and rarely spoke. When he did, he often expressed himself in line with his previous positions, such as when he compared the Margaret Thatcher's government's attitude towards trade unions to the practice of dictatorships in Spain , Germany and Greece . In later years he declared his decision to accept peer status as a defiant reaction to the accusation against him that he had "sold himself".

Baron Scanlon rarely appeared in public, also because he was increasingly plagued by diseases. He passed the time with his hobbies, namely golf , swimming and gardening. One of the few exceptions where he spoke out publicly was a radio interview he gave in 1993 in which he exercised painful self-criticism. He blamed the behavior of the trade unions in the 1960s and 1970s as a possible main factor in the decline of the British automotive industry, while his personal wish had always been directed to its strengthening.

Private and death

From 1944 until his death, Scanlon was married to née Nora Kate Markey, the daughter of a steelworker whom he had met as a young employee in the instrumentation division of Associated Electrical Industries in Trafford Park. The two had two daughters together.

Hugh Parr Scanlon, Baron Scanlon died on January 27, 2004 at the age of 90 at his home in Broadstairs on the Kent coast after a long illness of arteriosclerosis .

Personality and views

Representations about Scanlon agree that he was a contradicting person, which was not only reflected in his assumption of peer dignity. On the one hand, he was and remained a staunch Marxist for whom, despite growing criticism, the old Soviet Union was a model and who continued to appear at events of the Marxist Institute for Workers' Control until the 1970s . On the other hand, he felt drawn to many aspects of the bourgeois lifestyle, which was expressed, among other things, in his passion for golf, the acquisition of his posh country house in Broadstairs at a time when his official residence was a union building in London's Eltham district , and his frequent participation in dinner parties. This differentiated him from the more ascetic version of the union leader, as represented by his companion Jack Jones. In contrast to his role as a citizen scare and agitator in podium speeches, in which he often attempted revolutionary rhetoric, he was valued in an unofficial context - even by industrialists - as a sociable and witty person who was also capable of self-irony, even when it came to core issues own beliefs went.

Representatives of the New Left , who wanted to interpret his election as a beacon for a rising socialism and social upheaval, were reserved about Scanlon and instead advocated more traditional and practical positions regarding the function of the trade unions, also emphasizing their limited power. He indeed frequently used the controversial concept of self-management ( workers' control ), but behind it so much the idea of expropriation than that of a more cooperative relationship between labor and management, including aspects of participation and better qualifications on both sides. Even when he spoke of a socialist future in utopian categories, he stuck to the notion of shared roles in society.

Well aware of the reservations against himself inside and outside the union, he hesitated at the beginning of his term as chairman of the AEU to rely on the means of industrial action and hoped in vain for cooperation with the Wilson government. Secretly, as he admitted in later years, he had early doubts as to whether the increasingly militant behavior of the unions, especially with regard to numerous strikes, which were also called for secondary aspects, was really opportune. In the fight against the Industrial Relations Act, however, he was militant and also accused other trade unions of paying lip service to their resistance, while in truth the letters of the law were being adhered to.

During his time as union chairman, he advocated measures to ensure the long-term competitiveness of the British metal industry. With this in mind, he called for better qualifications for workers, modernization of factories and equality for women. He accused the government of paving the way for a shortage of skilled workers by cutting spending on training, and he accused various social groups, including the trade unions, of withholding an important human resource by misleading mechanical engineering as a male domain.

Scanlon was convinced early on that the main problem Britain had compared to other industrialized nations was that 80% of industrial operations were privately owned and that the owners were not making the necessary investments in their modernization and the training of workers. Originally a critic of Clement Attlee's post-war government, in later years he recognized its success in nationalizing important areas such as railways, mining, and electricity and gas supply. He was therefore just as critical of the privatization policy of the Thatcher era as the hostile attitude of the conservative government towards the unions and contrasted this with the constructive cooperation of the AUEW with the governments of Wilson and Callaghan in the second half of his time as union chairman. In later years he kept his distance from New Labor , the reorientation of the Labor Party chaired by Tony Blair .

Publications

• The Way Forward for Workers' Control . Institute for Workers 'Control, Nottingham 1968 (Institute for Workers' Control Pamphlet Series No. 1).
• Workers' Control and the Transnational Company . Institute for Workers 'Control, Nottingham 1972 (Institute for Workers' Control Pamphlet Series No. 22).
• Foreword . In: Jim Amison: The Million Pound Strike . Lawrence and Wisehart, London 1970, ISBN 0-85315-231-4 .
• Training, Education and the Industrial Strategy . Scottish Technical Education Council, Glasgow 1977 (Scotec Lecture, September 22, 1977).

literature

• Geoffrey Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
• Alastair J. Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, January 2008, Online Edition, January 2011.
• Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituarydated January 28, 2004.
• Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . The Economist obituarydated February 5, 2004.

Web links

• Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alastair J. Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, January 2008, Online Edition, January 2011. Accessed April 20, 2013. Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004. Accessed April 20, 2013.
2. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
3. ↑ Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004.
4. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004.
5. ↑ Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004.
6. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
7. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
8. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Geoffrey Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian Obituary of January 28, 2004. Accessed April 20, 2013. Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk. Accessed April 21, 2013. 
9. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary dated Jan. 28, 2004. Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk. 
10. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
11. ↑ Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk.  
12. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
13. ↑ In the original: "Get your tanks off my lawn, Hughie." Quoted from: Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
14. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
15. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004.
16. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
17. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary dated Jan. 28, 2004. Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk. 
18. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004. Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk. 
19. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
20. ↑ Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk.  
21. ↑ Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk.  
22. ↑ Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004. Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
23. ↑ Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
24. ↑ Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004.
25. ↑ In the original: "sold out". See: Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
26. ↑ Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
27. ↑ Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004.
28. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
29. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
30. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004. Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
31. ↑ Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary dated Jan. 28, 2004. Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk. 
32. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
33. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
34. ^ Reid: Scanlon, Hugh Parr, Baron Scanlon (1913-2004) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
35. ↑ Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.
36. ↑ Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk.  
37. ↑ Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004. Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk. 
38. ↑ Lord Scanlon . Telegraph obituary dated January 28, 2004.
39. ↑ Hugh (Parr) Scanlon . ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Biographical sketch on the website www.stuartthomson.co.uk.  
40. ↑ Goodman: Lord Scanlon of Davyhulme . Guardian obituary, Jan. 28, 2004.