Hugh Scanlon was one of the most important and influential trade union leaders of the 1960s and 1970s, both in the country as a whole and in Labour Party politics. Scanlon was leader of the AUEW (Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers) and along with Jack Jones, leader of the TGWU, they were said to run the country. Both were subject of unwarranted attention and vitriolic attack by the British media and were called the ‘terrible twins’.
Scanlon was born in Australia on 26 October 1913 and came to the UK at the age of 2. He was raised in a Labour family, his grandparents were members of both the Labour Party and the Co-op and they involved him in weekend educational schools from the age of 16. His formal education took place at Stretford Elementary School (Manchester) and on leaving he took on an engineering apprenticeship. Serving his apprenticeship not only taught him to be an instrument maker but also enabled him to become involved in sports activities such as swimming, boxing and football which, Scanlon believes, broadened his vision and helping him in later activities.
He soon became involved in trade union activities as a shop steward-convenor with the AEU (Amalgamated Engineering Union) in the giant Metro-Vickers factory. Rising through the AEU’s ranks, using his experience and reputation as a shop steward, he went on to be the union’s divisional organiser in Manchester (a full-time, elected position) from 1947 to 1963 when he was elected to the union’s executive council (1963-1967). But it was on being elected President of the union in 1968 (with talk of Communist connections) that he really came to the attention of the public.
Scanlon’s election represented part of a leftward shift among the leadership of some of Britain’s big trade unions. Scanlon had been a member of the Communist Party (1936-55) and even stood for the party in Stretford in 1945. Union leaders had, in the past, supported the leadership of the Labour Party but this now changed. Far from agreeing with the Party line, the new generation of union leaders were often openly critical and used their power at Party conferences to voice their dissent. The ‘block vote’ provided large unions with a huge number of votes as a result of the size of their membership and they often came together to inflict defeats. Scanlon had never been a party activist and was brought to power on a wave of shop floor militancy. He continued to speak at conferences held by the Institute for Workers’ Control well into the 1970s.
The first major confrontation with the leadership of the Labour Party came in 1968 with their announcement of the ‘In Place of Strife’ proposals. Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, Barbara Castle, suggested reform of the trade union laws which would impose such concepts as compulsory strike ballots. Scanlon, along with others, was fundamentally opposed to the reforms and in a number of meetings with Wilson (then Prime Minister) and Castle made his position quite clear. Trade union opposition, along with a failure by Wilson and Castle to build support within the Labour Party doomed the reforms to failure. Scanlon had taken on the Government and won. Wilson’s comment ‘get your tanks off my lawn Hughie’ was intended to be a threat to Scanlon not to interfere with Government and it proved to be a hollow one.
This form of opposition continued in the 1970s with the fight against the Industrial Relations Act (1970), which the Conservative Heath Government introduced. The intricate proposals confused many, but the unions were particularly hostile to the financial damages which they would face in the event in involvement in unlawful disputes. Scanlon believes that the unions should have sought greater unity when opposing the Act. His AUEW led the opposition whilst others paid lip service to opposition to the Act but in reality conformed to its requirements. The AUEW refused to pay £75,000 demanded of it by the National Industrial Relations Court and this non-compliance, along with the opposition of other unions led to the Act’s successful repeal.
Following these years of Government-union conflict, the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) came together to ‘prove’ that the unions would work for the benefit of the country and that the Labour Party was the only political party who could ensure this. The signing of the Social Contract was a landmark in trade union politics and Scanlon was at the forefront of its design.
Whilst initially opposed to a wages policy Scanlon, and other trade union leaders, saw the threat which inflation and economic collapse would have on the members of their trade unions. They, therefore, eventually agreed that a Social Contract was the best way forward. This Contract was seen as a agreement whereby unions would limit demands which may to higher inflation in return for actions from Government which would help the working class.
This was the height of the so-called ‘beer and sandwiches’ era of British politics where trade union leaders were said to call around to No 10 Downing Street to discuss the running of the country. Whilst this was always some way short of the truth, the Social Contract for which Scanlon and Jones worked hard, was a central plank of the Labour Government’s policies. They worked to ensure that the wages policy was adhered to and worked with the Government to periodically re-negotiate the Contract so that it could react to pressures and continue to function effectively. Whilst the unions restrained their pay demands, the Government delivered improvements in the ‘social’ wage such as increased maternity provisions and better protection from unfair dismissal.
A body which instituted such Government-Trade Union links was the National Economic Development Council (the ‘Neddy 6′) which brought union leaders and leading Government figures. Scanlon was a member from 1971. He was also made Chairman of the Engineering Industry Training Board (1975-82), the first time that a union boss had been put in charge; Vice President of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (1969-78); President of the European Metalworkers’ Federation (1974-78); member of the Metrication Board (1973-78); member of the NEB (977-79); and member of the Government Committee of Inquiry into the Teaching of Maths in Primary and Secondary Schools in England and Wales (1978-).
Both Scanlon and Jones retired from their respective positions around the same time and with new leaders in charge of the AUEW and the TGWU, the Social Contract collapsed. Where these two leaders were able to ‘control’ their membership, the same could not be said of the new leaders. Shortly after Scanlon and Jones retired, the mass industrial action of the Winter of Discontent took place and, shortly afterwards, the Labour Government fell. It is doubtful whether the Winter of Discontent would have taken place if they had still been in charge. In 1979, when he lost office in that year’s general election, James Callaghan raised Scanlon to the peerage for his contribution to the labour movement.
One of Scanlon’s final acts as President of the AUEW was to upset many on the left and to bring into even further disrepute the block vote at conference. Against the wishes of his delegation, Scanlon ‘forgot’ to vote for the measure on the mandatory re-selection of MPs (opposed by the Party leadership). This upset many – in his own union, the wider labour movement and the Party – appearing, as it did to those critics, to demonstrate an arrogance and mis-use of power.
From being a leader of the one of the big trade unions, associated with the left, who often came into conflict with the Labour Party, Scanlon, in the 1970s, became one of the most ferocious supporters and defenders of a Labour Government. At first, he was highly critical of the Attlee Government but later recognized the good in the programme of nationalization, i.e. the railways, mines, gas, electricity. His support for Labour was strengthened by the violent attacks on trade unions and on the achievements of previous Governments, in particular through the privatisations in the 1980s.
Scanlon’s time in the House of Lords has been blighted by ill-health, preventing him from continuing his previous policies and limiting the number of contributions. He retired, with his wife Nora, by whom he had two daughters, to live on the Kent coast. During his time as President of the AUEW he made many notable achievements – the greater involvement of members in decisions affecting their employment, new procedure agreements, and the successful repeal of the Industrial Relations Act. His importance to the union movement was demonstrated by his membership of the TUC General Council (1968-78) and its Economic Committee (1968-78). Whilst subject to many taunts, Scanlon refused to be driven from his path. Regardless of his cooperation with Conservative and Labour Governments in the 1970s, the security services such as MI5 saw him as a risk and placed him under surveillance. His time as AUEW President may have represented the high-tide of the power of trade unions leaders but he was always very aware of the need to involve the wider membership in decision-making. His partnership with Jones formed the bedrock of the Labour Party in the 1970s.