Jack Jones (trade union leader)

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For other persons named Jack Jones, see Jack Jones (disambiguation).

James Larkin Jones CH MBE (born March 29, 1913), known as Jack Jones, is a former British trade union leader and former General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union.

Jones was born in Garston, Liverpool. He left school at 14 and worked as an engineering apprentice, then as a dock-worker. He served with the British Battalion of the XV International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and he was seriously wounded at the Battle of Ebro in 1938. On his return to England he became a full-time official of the TGWU in Coventry. During World War II he helped to keep the city's munitions industry working through the Blitz. Jones played a key role in organising the workforce of the West Midlands motor industry in the postwar period as Regional Secretary of the TGWU.

Jones was elected General Secretary of the TGWU in 1968. He was chief economic spokesman for the Trades Union Congress and one of the authors of the Social Contract. Jones was also instrumental in the creation of the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service (Acas) in 1975 and was a member of the National Economic Development Council from 1969 to 1978. In January 1977 a Gallup opinion poll found that 54% of people believed that Jones was the most powerful person in Britain, ahead of the Prime Minister.[1]

In retirement from the T&G, Jones is the President of the National Pensioners' Convention, an umbrella organization representing over 1000 local, regional and national pensioners' groups. He is also President of the International Brigade Memorial Trust. His biography, Union Man, was published in 1986.