Jenkin Jones (trade unionist)

Jenkin Jones (1859 – 7 December 1929) was a Welsh trade unionist.

Born in South Wales, Jones became active in the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in Cardiff. In 1909, he ran for the general secretaryship of the union, and narrowly defeated David S. Gardner, the union's chairman, by somewhat more than 18,000 votes to 15,000.[1]

Jones' time in office was not a success, and has been described as "five of the most disruptive years in the history of the union".[2] Late in 1912, the union's executive suspended him,[3] but he persuaded the union's trustees to dissolve the executive and hold new elections for the general secretary post. This was the subject of a court case, which ultimately concluded that this action was within the powers of the trustees.[4]

Jones stood in the new election and placed second in the first round of voting, defeating Tom Mann and three minor candidates (J. Gorman, J. Gradwell and H. Sladdin).[5] In the run-off, he again came second, defeated by Robert Young, who described Jones as "unfit on the grounds of inefficiency to hold office".[2]

Jones died in 1929, by which time he was living at his sister's house near Neath.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Amalgamated Society of Engineers", The Times, 15 January 1909
  2. 1 2 V. L. Allen, Power in Trade Unions: A Study of Their Organization in Great Britain, p.217
  3. ↑ "Mr Burns and the Society of Engineers", The Times, 12 April 1913
  4. ↑ "The Engineers' Society: Election of the Executive Council upheld", Manchester Guardian, 24 April 1913
  5. ↑ "The ASE secretaryship", Manchester Guardian, 11 July 1913
  6. ↑ "News in brief", The Times, 12 December 1929
Trade union offices
Preceded by
George Nicoll Barnes		 General Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers
1909–1913		 Succeeded by
Robert Young
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.