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16 July, 2007
Former ICEM Gen. Sec. Fred Higgs was awarded the Transport & General Workers’ Union’s (TGWU) highest award on 4 July when the Unite Joint General Secretary, Tony Woodley, awarded him with the Gold Patch at the TGWU’s last Policy Conference.
Higgs served as ICEM general secretary from 1999 to his retirement in late 2006. He is a 40-year member of TGWU and began his long service career with the union in 1979. Prior to his election as ICEM general secretary, Higgs served as National Secretary of TGWU’s chemicals, oil, and rubber sectors.
Fred Higgs Speaking at TGWU's Policy Conference
In a speech upon receiving the award, Higgs told delegates of his disgust after reaching Brussels with the UK Labour Party government’s complicity in occupying Iraq. He also spoke on global labour solidarity, and gave the story of TGWU’s Peter Booth intervening with a British-based company to reinstate two sacked trade union leaders in Thailand. They had been sacked in 2004 for trade union activities, and they turned to the ICEM for help.
Booth not only won their reinstatement but together with Higgs and the ICEM, won a guarantee that trade union organisation would not be interfered with at their plant. In the year since the two leaders have been back at work, they, along with fellow workers grateful to Booth and the ICEM, have organised 11 of the 12 plants that this particular British company operates in Thailand.
Peter Booth
The TGWU Policy Conference is likely to be the last such biannual gathering since new forums and structures will result in TGWU’s merger with Amicus to form Unite. The conference reviewed TGWU’s aggressive organising project, demanded the withdrawal of British troops in Iraq, and took a tough stance on the abuse of labour agency workers in the UK. Delegates heard vivid stories of such abuses, including the real life situation of a Polish woman who was forced to live her car after her agency evicted her from living accommodations.
The Policy Conference made history by electing the first and last woman to chair this year’s proceedings. “Same old story … as soon as a woman gets to the top, the job is abolished,” joked Brenda Sanders. “This union will be carrying forwards our finest traditions together with our colleagues in Amicus as we build Unite to a powerhouse in the world of work and the 21st century,” she added.