George Smith (trade unionist)
Sir George Fenwick Smith CBE (24 June 1914 – 21 November 1978) was a Scottish trade unionist.[1]
Smith was born in Arbroath, Angus, and educated at Inverbrothock and Downfield Schools.[1] He worked as a carpenter and joined the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers in 1933. He also joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in the early 1940s but left it in 1954.[2]
Smith became the full-time National Organiser of the Woodworkers in 1945, and then Assistant General Secretary in 1949. Ten years later, he was elected as the union's General Secretary.[3] When the Woodworkers merged with other unions to form the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians, Smith became its first General Secretary, serving until his death in 1978.[4] He also serve as the President of the Trades Union Congress in 1972, and on the council of Acas from 1974.[3]
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1969 and knighted in the 1978 New Year Honours.[1]
He died in Sutton, London, in 1978.
References
- "Sir George Smith – Influential Trade Union Leader". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 24 November 1978. p. 16.
- Stephen Milligan, The new barons: union power in the 1970s, p.150
- "Smith, Sir George". Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U159695. Cite journal requires
|journal=(help) - Wolodymyr Maksymiw et al, The British trade union directory, p.357
| Trade union offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Jack McDermott |
Assistant General Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers 1949–1959 |
Succeeded by W. J. Martin |
| Preceded by Jack McDermott |
General Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers 1959–1971 |
Succeeded by Position abolished |
| Preceded by Jack Cooper and Harry Nicholas |
Trades Union Congress representative to the AFL-CIO 1969 With: Sidney Greene |
Succeeded by Cyril Plant and Hugh Scanlon |
| Preceded by New position |
General Secretary of UCATT 1971–1978 |
Succeeded by Les Wood |
| Preceded by Jack Cooper |
President of the Trades Union Congress 1972 |
Succeeded by Joseph Crawford |