Dinner with former labour leaders
Yesterday evening was a very congenial occasion when I met for dinner two former trade union leaders with whom I used to work when I was Head of Research at the Communication Workers Union.
Tony Young used to be General Secretary of the National Communications Union and the Communication Workers Union, where he was my boss, and now, as Lord Young, he is minister for postal services and employment relations at the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills.
Morty Bahr, served as President of the 700,000-member Communications Workers of America from 1985 until his retirement in 2005. He wrote a book about his career which I’ve reviewed here. He is now a sprightly 83 year with six great grandchildren and still working on housing for seniors which is what brought him to London.
We ate and chatted in “Rules” which has a great atmosphere and claims to be the oldest restaurant in London being established in 1798 (as I pointed out to Morty, it was founded just after the creation of the United States).
One of the great pleasures of my 24 years employment in the trade union movement was the opportunity to work with outstanding figures with relatively little formal education but enormous intellectual and social skills. Another such man was Bryan Stanly who was my boss as General Secretary of the Post Office Engineering Union until his retirement in 1986. Earlier this week, he died aged 83 and I will attend his funeral on Monday.
July 26th, 2009 at 12:09 am
I have fond memories of Bryan as a man of compassion and a great love of his fellow man.
Next time you see Tony mention I still think of him and Bernie. I owe those two.