Joseph Gormley, Baron Gormley

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Joseph "Joe" Gormley, Baron Gormley , OBE (born July 5, 1917 in Ashton-in-Makerfield , Lancashire , † May 27, 1993 in Wigan , Greater Manchester ) was a British miner , union official and life peer . From 1971 to 1982 he was President of the British Mining Union NMU .

life and career

Early years

Gormley grew up as one of seven children in difficult family circumstances; his father drank and was violent. At the age of 14, like his father, he began to work underground in a coal mine. He was an active miner for almost thirty years. He soon became involved in the National Union of Mineworkers (NMU), the British union that represents the interests of miners. In 1957 he rose to the national executive committee of interest representation. At this point he was the only committee member who was actually still active in the mining industry.

From 1961 Gormley was Secretary General of the NMU for the Northwest Region. He also got involved in the Labor Party and was a member of the national executive committee from 1963 to 1973. In 1968 he tried to become national secretary general of his union, but was defeated in the elections against the Scot Lawrence Daly . In 1969 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire in Execution Officer .

As president of the NMU

In contrast to many other driving forces in the NMU, Gormley was not a communist and tried his whole life to keep the influence of the left-wing camp on trade union politics small. In 1971 he competed in the presidential election against the Scottish communist Mick McGahey , whom he was able to defeat. Thus, Gormley succeeded Sidney Ford as president of the NMU.

National miners' strikes of 1972 and 1974 took place under his presidency. Both ended in great success for the miners and ensured that the miner profession moved to the top of the UK payroll. The approximately 240,000 miners who followed the call to strike at the time also turned out to be a political power; it is widely recognized that the 1974 strike ultimately led to the end of Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath's reign .

Most recently, Gormley had a major success for his union in 1981 when he forced the British government under Margaret Thatcher to refrain from mine closings for the time being. As a result, he temporarily missed a kink in the career of then Energy Minister David Howell .

Gormley was concerned about the rise of Arthur Scargill , who was politically much further left-wing, within the union bodies. However, he could not prevent the latter from replacing him as union president in April 1982. Under Scargill, the NMU denied the great miners' strike of 1984/85 , the fruitless end of which led to the NMU's descent into insignificance.

Late years

Back in 1978, then Prime Minister James Callaghan had asked the Queen to knight Gormley , but Gormley refused the honor on the grounds that he would rather move into the House of Lords as a life peer . He was clearly against the leader of the Labor Party, Michael Foot , who would have preferred to see the unelected chamber of parliament abolished.

In 1982 his wish was finally granted and he was appointed Baron Gormley, of Ashton-in-Makerfield in Greater Manchester . In the British House of Lords, however, he was only able to play an active role until 1984, as he could only speak with difficulty due to a stroke. In the following years Gormley suffered more strokes, which led to paralysis. He died of cancer at his home in Wigan at the age of 75 .

Gormley had been married since 1937 and had two children.

Fonts

  • Battered cherub: The autobiography of Joe Gormley. Hamilton, London 1982, ISBN 0-24110-754-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Portrait on global. britica.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Eng.) accessed on February 24, 2015@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / global. britica.com  
  2. ↑ a b Obituary on articles.latimes.com accessed on February 24, 2015
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Obituary on independent.co.uk, accessed on February 24, 2015
  4. ↑ a b Obituary on nytimes.com accessed on February 24, 2015
  5. ↑ Article in the Spiegel on the occasion of the appointment as Life Peer, accessed on February 24, 2015
  6. ↑ Joseph Gormley, Baron Gormley on thepeerage.com , accessed September 11, 2016.
  7. ↑ Joseph Gormley in Hansard (English)
personal data
SURNAME Gormley, Joseph, Baron Gormley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gormley, Joe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British miner and trade unionist, Life Peer
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Ashton-in-Makerfield , Lancashire
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 1993
Place of death Wigan , Greater Manchester