Ron Todd; union boss took on Thatcher govt.
Hyfler/Rosner
Transport union boss during the 1980s, who took on the
Thatcher government and clashed with Neil Kinnock's Labour
party
Geoffrey Goodman
Monday May 2, 2005
Guardian
Being elected general secretary of the Transport and General
Workers' Union (TGWU) has, until recently, been akin to
joining the royal household of the British labour movement:
not, it should be emphasised as a lieutenant of the cavalry
but as a kingmaker and, it must also be added, king
destroyer.
In the case of Ron Todd, who has died of leukaemia aged 78,
there was an important extra dimension: he established a
unique record of being elected twice to what was then the
leadership of the largest, as well as most influential trade
union in the labour movement. That, in itself, was a notable
first in labour history in the wake of such predecessors as
Ernest Bevin, Frank Cousins and Jack Jones.
His first election to the leadership came in 1984 when Moss
Evans took early retirement. Todd's main opponent was George
Wright, regional secretary of the TGWU in Wales and a man
with wide experience, especially in the Midlands car
industry. While Todd was Moss Evans's preferred successor,
not least because of a long-standing friendship, the balance
of political favour was for Wright, a Labour moderate.
Wright was a formidably able and experienced official and
strongly supported by senior figures in the Labour party
establishment as well as in the media. He was a
middle-of-the-road Labour moderate while Todd was well to
the left.
Even so, the first election result gave Ron Todd a majority
of 44,817 on a 41% turnout of the union's 1,470,000 members.
This result was immediately challenged by Wright's
supporters who claimed evidence of ballot rigging. Moss
Evans repudiated any such accusations and declared Todd the
winner arguing: "I am convinced we did things correctly."
But Todd was not satisfied and after weeks of internal
wrangling, legal challenges and whispering from Wright's
supporters, Todd himself insisted on a second ballot. Senior
officials of the union tried to dissuade him from taking
such a drastic step but they were waved aside.
Todd's view as expressed to me was simple: "I am determined
that the members of this union should have the full
democratic right to elect a leader whose credibility is
beyond doubt." Todd knew that the allegations of ballot
rigging could be damaging to the union and that only a
re-run of the election would resolve the dispute. He was
also sensitive to a national mood of anti-unionism in a
period when prime minister Margaret Thatcher's campaign to
bring the trade unions under greater legislative control was
starting to bite.
The result was a triumph for Todd's insistence. The second
election result, announced in June 1985, gave him a majority
of 76,840, almost doubling his previous margin over Wright,
and with a membership turn-out of 40% which was only 1% down
on the first ballot. He was now the unassailable leader of
the TGWU and remained so for seven years.
This incident at the start of Todd's leadership lent
powerful weight to his longstanding reputation as a man of
unusual personal integrity - a characteristic that was not,
then, overwhelmingly common at the top of trade union
politics. In fact, the Todd "honesty factor" became a
cornerstone of his reputation both as TGWU leader and member
of the Trades Union Congress general council: so much so
that friends as well as critics were heard to murmur: "The
trouble with Ron is that he is too bloody honest."
There is an anecdote on this going back to his working days
on the Ford assembly line at Dagenham. His elder brother was
a supervisor while Ron remained a shopfloor
"spanner-and-screwdriver" man on the line before becoming
deputy convenor of Ford shop stewards. One day his brother
suggested a way in which Ron could increase his earnings by
accepting overtime and dodging the occasional night shift.
The younger Todd told his brother to "bugger off" - or words
to that effect in much stronger language.
Todd was no political intellectual; no electrifying orator.
He did not command the same attention as his illustrious
predecessors. Bevin, Arthur Deakin, Cousins and Jones. But
he won respect as a down-to-earth socialist, a man who would
not break a promise, the working-class lad from London's
East End who never forgot nor betrayed his roots and scoffed
at any suggestion of honours. He preferred to remain "Mr
Todd".
Yet it was precisely this earthiness and dedication to
well-worn principles that brought him into conflict with
Neil Kinnock and the Labour leadership in the late 1980s
after Labour lost its third general election in succession
to Thatcher. Following the 1987 defeat, Kinnock set about
reforming the Labour party and effectively laying the
foundations for what became Tony Blair's New Labour agenda.
Todd was Kinnock's first big hurdle. And it was a difficult
one for the Labour leader since, in Todd, he was facing a
genuine working-class voice, who could be tough and abrasive
with a touch of cockney swagger as well as generous and
supportive.
At the 1988 Labour conference, in the wake of the 1987
defeat, Kinnock's scene-setting speech opened a new era for
the Labour party. The modernisation theme was central to an
agenda, which included abandoning unilateral nuclear
disarmament as well as formal acceptance of a mixed economy.
There was no doubt in Todd's mind that this amounted to a
major challenge, if not the beginning of betrayal, and at
the Tribune rally, following Kinnock's conference speech,
the TGWU leader lashed into the party leader and mocked the
modernisation philosophy - especially the party's
abandonment of unilateral nuclear disarmament. Todd was
determined to maintain the TGWU commitment to that policy -
established by Frank Cousins, who famously defeated the then
Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell on the issue in 1960.
The outcome of that 1988 conference, was a serious strain in
relations between the Labour leadership and their largest
affiliate. Arguably it never completely healed before Todd's
retirement in March 1992, one month before the general
election.
Yet for most of the 1980s the cold war was still in
operation. And Todd and other union leaders were compelled
to recognise they were losing the battle against Kinnock's
abandonment of unilateral nuclear disarmament.
Todd's criticism of Kinnock and the Labour leadership was
resented, even by some on the left. To many observers it
seemed uncharacteristically severe especially since Kinnock,
a TGWU member was regarded as a man of the left. Yet it
reflected a real lack of chemistry between the two men as
well as Kinnock's impatience with what he perceived as trade
union reluctance to change. Yet some of Todd's critics later
came to wonder whether he was ahead of his time and already
recognising a profound change that was emerging in Labour's
political agenda and notably in relations with the trade
unions.
Much of Todd's period as TGWU general secretary coincided
with the most turbulent times in Britain's postwar
industrial affairs. There was Thatcher's campaign to "tame
the unions"; the miners' strike; the decline in TUC
authority, and falling trade union membership. Todd
unsuccessfully supported the expulsion from the TUC of
unions, such as the engineers, willing to co-operate with
the Thatcher government.
One of Todd's most emotive battles was his opposition to the
government's abolition, in 1989, of the dock labour scheme,
created by Bevin in wartime to protect dock workers. The
TGWU were ready to call a national dock strike, but Todd
finally backed down having failed to rally his troops. It
was the last time Britain faced a national dock strike.
Anti-union legislation coupled with unemployment had eroded
rank and file militancy.
Meanwhile Todd was frequently attacked from within his own
union. There were divisions among his 39-member executive -
sometimes on Labour party policy issues though more often
because of left-right warring about how to cope with the
hostile climate promoted by Thatcher. It was not a good time
to be a trade union leader.
Todd was born in Walthamstow, east London, the the youngest
son of a family of market traders. He was educated at St
Patrick's Catholic school, Walthamstow, leaving at 14 to
sweep the floors in a local barbers' shop. He then worked as
a plumber's mate before being called up into the Royal
Marines in 1945. His father, George, had been a regular in
the marines and shortly after Ron joined, father and son
were even in the same camp. He served as a marine commando
in Hong Kong and on the China border for two years. He kept
a close association with the marines to the end, attending
their annual assemblies - and being honoured with life
membership. He saw no paradox between this and his
unswerving commitment to nuclear disarmament.
After that national service he briefly worked as a gas
fitter before joining the Ford plant at Dagenham where he
remained until 1962 when he became a full time TGWU officer.
In 1969 he was appointed an officer in the union's Region No
1 - the London area - and became regional secretary in 1976.
Two years later he was appointed national organiser and then
came the general secretaryship, and membership of the TUC
general council on which he remained until retirement in
1992. He was chairman of the TUC international committee
from 1985 until 1992; a member of the National Economic
Development Council from 1985-92; president of the Trade
Union Unity Trust (1986-89) and honorary vice-president of
the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament.
Todd was a man full of paradox. His two great hobbies were
amateur archaeology - he collected fossils - and he was a
man with a serious love of poetry. He had several books of
poems published, proceeds of which he donated to charities.
He was writing his poems on current affairs up to his final
months.
He was an intense patriot and a profound internationalist
and socialist. He was a relentless campaigner for South
African human rights, a supporter of the African National
Congress and a close friend of Nelson Mandela. More
surprising was his friendship with the late Queen Mother
whom he recruited as an honorary TGWU member, thus following
on from her husband, George VI's honorary membership.
Ron's final move before he retired was to pave the way for
his successor, Bill Morris, the first black leader of a
major British trade union. That, in itself, was an epitaph
characteristic of the man.
He is survived by one son and two daughters. His wife, Jo,
died in 1996.
Denis MacShane writes:
Ron Todd's contribution to the international trade union
movement was a little reported but vital element in his
leadership of the TGWU. Todd had seen, close up, the effects
of extremist nationalist ideology when he supervised the
execution of Japanese war criminals in Singapore while
serving in the Royal Marines.
As a car workers' leader he was confronted by globalisation
long before this term took fashionable hold. The automobile
industry has never been national - its employees, raw
materials and sales depend on transnational relations. Thus,
for Todd's beloved Dagenham car workers, decisions in
Detroit mattered more than those taken in Essex. Building
links with Ford and General Motors workers in Europe were
vital to protect the interests of British workers.
Todd built a friendly relationship with the United
Autoworkers Union. This was the most progressive of American
labour unions, constantly at odds with the arrogant, cold
war obsessions of the elderly labour leaders in Washington
DC.
Trade union internationalism has two faces. One is based on
windy rhetoric proclaiming solidarity with toilers around
the world, which was bought to perfection by trade union
officials who never found fault with Stalinism or
Trotskyism.
Alternatively, there is one involving the hard graft of
seeking to build contacts and links with real, living
workers so that solidarity becomes converted into effective
help. Todd believed in the second. He gave time, energy and
TGWU resources to organising links with workers in Europe,
North America, Japan and further afield. He became an early
supporter of the Polish union, Solidarity, at a time when
Soviet-admiring union bosses in Britain, refused the believe
that workers in eastern Europe wanted democracy.
He gave vital support to the independent black trade union
movement in South Africa when it was viewed with suspicion
by some exiled South African leaders. Todd knew that a
strike in South African car factory, or a Polish shipyard
would do more to undermine the dictatorships of communism
and apartheid than pamphlets and speeches denouncing either
written in the comfort of London or Washington.
Todd became an early proponent of engaging with the European
Union at a time when many trade unions preferred the narrow
nationalism of denouncing Brussels as a capitalist
conspiracy out to do down Britain. He worked with the
International Metalworkers' Federation to create workers'
councils for Ford and GM employees.
Todd's humanity and broad working-class culture - reflected
in the books of poems he circulated to his former
international labour friends in his retirement - made him
one of the most popular British union leaders on the
international scene.
· Ronald Todd, trade union leader, born March 11 1927; died
April 30 2005
Hyfler/Rosner
Ron Todd
(Filed: 02/05/2005)
Ron Todd, who died on Saturday aged 78, was general
secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU)
from 1984 until 1992; stocky, red-faced and devoid of
smoothness, he was easily portrayed as an antediluvian
figure, though many of his skirmishes were with Neil Kinnock
and the Labour Party, rather than the Tory government.
His nickname of "Toddosaurus" in fact came from his
surprising hobby of collecting fossils, though it fitted his
reputation as a Left-wing dinosaur. But although the TGWU
remained, during his period in office, much the most
influential union in the country, Todd's strength as leader
was never anything like that of Jack Jones, a predecessor
once named by a Gallup poll as the most powerful man in the
country, ahead of Jim Callaghan, then the Prime Minister.
By the time Todd became general secretary, the power of
trades unions was already greatly diminished, but despite
Margaret Thatcher's reforms of employment legislation, the
TGWU remained the largest union in the Western world. The
influence which its executive could bring to bear on the
Labour party while the block vote remained in place was
considerable.
Todd, who was never prepared to trim - either to accommodate
the changing political landscape of the 1980s, or to appease
the more bolshie elements of his own executive - set out to
use that power to hold the Labour party to principles he had
always espoused.
Perhaps the most obvious example came in 1988, when Kinnock
was humiliatingly put back in line after he had dared to
suggest a dilution of Labour's policy of unilateral nuclear
disarmament.
The TGWU had adopted the policy 26 years earlier (long
before the party) and Todd was not prepared to countenance
any alteration.
This adherence to old-fashioned Socialism led him to take a
number of stands which probably undermined the position of
unions in general, and certainly made it easy to satirise
the movement as obstructive and out-of-date. It also meant
that Todd - whose integrity was demonstrated by his
insistence on a re-run, in 1985, of his own disputed
election ballot, despite the opposition of many of his
colleagues - often found himself standing alongside the
radical Left, with whom he had little in common.
He took a hard line on Ford's plans to build a factory at
Dundee on a single-union deal - a stance which led the
company simply to up sticks for Spain - and his refusal to
co-operate with the Training Commission set up by the
Conservative government in 1988 led, in part, to the
increasing disengagement of the unions from overall
industrial policy. Todd simply told the TUC that "the
government is looking for a hole in which to hide 500,000
unemployed". He also insisted on attempting to drive the
electricians' union out of the TUC, and two years later,
bullishly resisted attempts by moderates to force him out.
Ronald Todd was born at Walthamstow, east London, on March
11 1927, into a family which had been market traders there
for generations, though his father George later had a job on
the telephone exchange. His mother Emily was a pianist who
accompanied silent films, and young Ron grew up with a love
of Victorian ballads and music hall songs.
He became an accomplished pianist himself and, in later
years, collected Victorian sheet music. He was proud of
never having paid more than £20 for any score.
The family was Roman Catholic, and he attended St Patrick's
school where, as an altar boy, he disgraced himself during
the stations of the cross by setting fire - he insisted
accidentally - to the priest's cassock. His penance was to
recite many Ave Marias while the school prayed for him, with
occasional smacks from the attendant nuns.
After school, Todd began to train as a plumber, but was
called up to serve with the Royal Marines in 1945. He had
initially favoured the Royal Navy, but later recalled with
pride that he and his father were the first father and son
in the Marines to appear on the parade ground together.
He was sent to Hong Kong, and spent a considerable amount of
time in China, where he became greatly affected by the
social inequalities he saw.
By 1954, he had returned to civilian life as a car worker at
Ford and joined the TGWU. Within five years, he had become
Deputy Convener, and a full-time union official; by 1969, he
was regional officer for the union. Dagenham had its fair
share of strikes and disputes during the early years of the
decade, and by the time Todd became south-east regional
secretary in 1976, he was already tackling the Labour MPs
whom he felt obstructed the union's interests.
He became National Organiser (fourth in the TGWU's
hierarchy) in 1978 and in 1984 was elected General
Secretary. After a second ballot, prompted by complaints of
irregularities in the first, he settled into the job, and in
1987 was the only union leader selected by Kinnock to serve
on Labour's election planning team. He was embarassed by
another ballot dispute in March 1990, when 9,600 papers were
stolen to try to swing the contest in favour of the Left.
The poll was re-run, but Todd's confidential report, with
his handwritten remarks on candidates, was leaked after he
presented it to Scotland Yard.
But Todd could do little to arrest the declining power of
the TGWU under Thatcher, and the union continued to lose
members throughout his administration. As late as 1991, he
was calling for the repeal of all employment legislation
introduced during the previous decade. One of his last acts
was to introduce a cost-cutting package and increase
membership fees.
As well as his collection of sheet music covers, which
numbered nearly 600 and compared favourably with that held
by the Victoria and Albert Museum, Todd took a keen interest
in archaeology. "I've always been interested in the past,"
he said. "History is important." While attending a Labour
party conference in Brighton in 1983 he passed the time
rummaging through a box of bones, and came across part of
the hind leg of a brontosaurus. He had an extensive
collection of other fossils until 1994, when he donated them
to an east London primary school.
On his retirement Todd, a great royalist, was proud to
receive a congratulatory telegram from the Queen Mother, in
her capacity as an honorary member of the union's branch at
Smithfield meat market. He devoted some of his time in
retirement to working with the deaf, for which he learnt
sign language. He suffered from leukaemia in his later
years.
Asked how he would like his stewardship of the TGWU to be
remembered, he said: "I would want the rank-and-file to say
'He stayed true to the basic values of trade unionism'."
He married, in 1945, Josephine Tarrant, who refused to go
near his collection of fossils, telling him: "Dust them
yourself."
She predeceased him; they had a son and two daughters.