Sidney Greene, Baron Greene of Harrow Weald

Sidney Francis Greene, Baron Greene of Harrow Weald, of Harrow in the County of Greater London Kt CBE JP ( born February 12, 1910 in London, † 26 July 2004 in Harrow, Middlesex ) was a British trade union official for seventeen years Secretary the railway union ONLY ( National Union of Railwaymen ), and in 1970 president of the confederation of trade unions TUC ( trades Union Congress) was and 1975 was as a life peer, due to the Life peerages Act 1958 a member of the House of Lords.

Life

Ascent to the Secretary General of the railway union ONLY

Greene began after the school attendance age of fourteen in 1924 his career with the railroad and worked mainly in the marshalling yards of London, before he began in 1944 as a youth organizer of his career as a union official. In 1941 he was Justice of the Peace ( Justice of the Peace ) for London and has held this post until 1965. Having worked for some time as a union organizer in London, he became in 1954 Vice - Secretary General of the ONLY.

His appointment as General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen in 1957 came unexpectedly and suddenly, after the former Secretary James " Big Jim " Campbell was killed in a car accident during a union official exchanges in Ukraine. He was identified as a compromise candidate. Greene exercised the office of the Secretary of eighteen years until his replacement by Sidney Weighell 1975.

Also during his tenure, membership in the union continued, the fifth largest in 1945 with 408 900 members union, 1956, only 369 400 in 1966 and just 227,800 members counted. Unlike his predecessor, he was looking for Campbell in the late 1950s and the contact to the Government of the Conservative Party under Harold Macmillan and Ernest Marples, the Minister of Transport (Minister of Transport ) of this government, which, however, was seen by other union leaders critical.

Even after the Labour Party could ask the Prime Minister due to the electoral success in the general election of October 15 1964 Harold Wilson, to Greene proved to be helpful for the government and spoke out against strikes. Housing Minister (Minister of Housing ), Richard Crossman, recorded on 10 February 1966 in his diary:

This, as well as a number of other strikes during Greene's tenure, was averted. He took the view that industrial action would mean big sacrifices for the women of the union members. On the other hand, he pointed to the fact that the railroad saw growing competition with the freight and buses suspended, and conceived with the in the beginning, but rapidly growing aviation industry. Secondly, it was the mid-1960s one of the strongest critics of price and income policy.

For his many years of service he was in 1966 Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( CBE).

Ascent to the President of the Trade Union Congress TUC

During this period he was also Chairman since 1968 of the Economic Committee of the TUC and gave also this office in 1975, in this time of Alfred Allen, the General Secretary of Usdaw ( Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers ).

Greene dealt sustainably with the problem of unemployment. In his diary on December 15, 1968 wrote Tony Benn, the then Technology Minister (Minister of Technology) in the Cabinet Wilson:

Greene became a critic of economic restraint of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer ( Chancellor of the Exchequer ), Roy Jenkins. Prime Minister Harold Wilson described in The Labour Government, 1964-1970 (1971 ), based on the events of 11 June 1969 that a revised price and income document was adopted and Vic Feather ( TUC General Secretary ), Frederick Hayday (National Economic Secretary of the Union was appointed to the General and municipal Workers ), Alf Allen ( Secretary General of the Usdaw ), Sidney Greene, Hugh Scanlon (President of the engineering union ) and Jack Jones ( General Secretary of the transport Workers' Union ) as members of an ad hoc committee to the price and income policy checked.

On the Trade Union Congress of the TUC in 1970 in Brighton Greene, who already was president of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress 1969-1970, was elected to succeed John E. Newton for a one-year term as President of the TUC and held that post until his replacement by Jack Cooper on the Trade Union Congress in 1971 in Blackpool.

House of Lords member

Greene, who was defeated in 1970 Knight Bachelor and then on the additional name "Sir" and also wore 1970-1978 Director of the Bank of England was, was by a Letters Patent dated 21 January 1975 as a life peer with the title Baron Greene of Harrow Weald of Harrow in the County of Greater London raised to the peerage, and was until his death in the House of Lords as a member. His maiden speech in the House of Lords he held on February 25, 1975 Trade Union and Labour Relations Amendment Act ( Trade Union and Labour Relations Amendment Bill).

In addition, he served 1975-1980 as director of the multinational mining company RTZ Corporation and at the same time of the Times Newspapers and was followed by 1980 and 1982 Member of the board of Times Newspapers Holdings.

Also known as the House of Lords, he remained a member of the union composite and in 2002 took part in the opening of the headquarters of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers ( RMT), the successor organization to the ONLY, in Clapham.