20.03.1997

Fighter turned negotiator

Obituary

Jimmy Airlie was easily recognisable as one of a very specific type. A working class trade union leader, a former communist and a hard man. His breed of fighting politics could be found particularly in the shipyards of Glasgow and Dundee. When he died last week, no one mourned more than the establishment - for Jimmy Airlie, like so many ‘good communists’ before him, had sold out.

He was born in 1937, the son of a boilermaker in Renfrew. After his military service, he joined the Communist Party and was one of the leaders of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in. He inspired the men of the yards and gained a massive amount of respect and credibility with the working class in Scotland for his ability to call a spade a shovel.

He went full time as the Amalgamated Engineering Union assistant divisional organiser and was subsequently elected to the executive council of the union. Tributes for Airlie have made reference to his great skills as a negotiator. Maybe that is where he went wrong: he stopped being a fighter and became a negotiator.

The last time I saw Jimmy Airlie, he was being chased out of Dundee by irate Timex strikers for his despicable role at the end of their dispute. He achieved something that Timex management never did - he split the workforce. In a debacle of a meeting, he ordered a re-vote three times to achieve the outcome he wanted. Alan, a former Timex striker, commented: “The trade union leaders forget why we elected them in the first place. But on a bosses’ wage what do you expect?”

But the last word should be left to Airlie himself. The man clearly saw the dangers, but did not manage to avoid them: “If you become corrupt and lose touch with people you represent, then you deserve to end up in the trash can of history.” That is so true, Jimmy.

Mary Ward