Jimmy Knapp

Shrewd and determined leader of Britain's biggest rail union
The redoubtable Jimmy Knapp, who has died aged 60 of cancer, was a symbolic example of the deep, cultural, socio-political identity between the trade unions and the Labour party. He was, for nearly 20 years, general secretary of Britain's largest railway workers' union, known until 1990 as the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and since re-christened as the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).

Knapp came to the leadership of the old NUR in 1983, in the midst of Margaret Thatcher's onslaught against organised labour. It was a difficult time for any trade union leader to inherit the hot seat of public sector trade unionism; still more so to take charge of an organisation so deeply threaded into the fabric of British labour history.

It was already clear when he took over from Sid Weighell that the Conservative prime minister held a special distaste for the nationalised railways, second only to her loathing for the miners. But Jimmy, 6ft 2in of Scottish socialist, was not in fear of the Iron Lady. He just didn't think much of her policies; and it didn't take long for her to discover that.

His first great challenge came when the National Union of Mineworkers' leader Arthur Scargill called his men out in 1984. The railways were a crucial element in the year-long miners' strike, and Knapp gave the miners every support that was feasible, short of joining them in the strike. More than any other union leader, he stayed loyal to Scargill, despite his private thoughts about the strategy of the miners' president; there was never a single word of criticism uttered in public.

Yet, although Knapp came to the NUR leadership with the reputation of being a "wild lefty", as his predecessor called him, the practice of his power was substantially different. He believed in a cautious, sensible and rational approach to the terrible problems facing what was then still British Railways -especially the under-invest ment - and often had to stand up to fierce criticism from within his 21-member executive, of which at least a third, to his left, demanded a much harder line.

But Knapp was determined not to follow in the footsteps of Scargill and the miners, despite temptations to challenge the Thatcher government policy towards the railways. To be sure, the disputes, actual and potential, were ever-present - among railway guards, train drivers, signalmen and London Underground workers. There was scarcely a moment during the 1980s when trouble did not lurk around the next bend in the track.

To cope with these problems, Knapp developed a policy of trying to build bridges with the main drivers' union, Aslef. He established a firm relationship with the late Ray Buckton, the veteran, influential Aslef leader, and, for a time, it seemed that a merger might take place between the two old rival unions. It didn't happen - though both Knapp and Buckton tried hard to achieve it.

Knapp also fought his own executive over its demand to defy the 1984 Trade Union Act. He argued vehemently that his union - unlike Scargill and the miners - must conduct ballots on strike action. He was always aware that railwaymen, more than most workers, had a direct, face-to-face relationship with the commuting public. He knew that any action by railwaymen, however morally just, needed the support of the passengers.

When he led a series of successful 24-hour wage strikes in 1989, he did so not only with the backing of his members' votes, but, to the government's amazement, with the support of many commuters, who agreed with the union case for more rail investment and an end to cutbacks. Knapp knew all about the decline of Britain's railways from the huge slippage in his own union's membership.

When he joined the NUR as a signal box lad in 1955, the union had more than 500,000 members. By the time he became a full-time official in 1972 at the age of 31, it had fallen to 400,000; when he was elected general secretary in 1983, with a huge majority, it had crashed down to 142,675. Now, even after the merger that brought about the RMT union in 1990, the membership is down to 60,000.

Right to the end of his life, Knapp campaigned for an end to cuts in the railway system, for more investment, for a greater concentration - and spend - on safety, as well as modernisation under public ownership. Throughout the Conservative government's stampede to privat- isation, he warned of the dangers and damage that would be done to the network if it was sold off and fragmented. But that was a time when government ears were closed to trade union appeals.

Jimmy Knapp was born in Hurlford, Ayrshire, a year after the beginning of the second world war. His father, a working engineer, went into the army and young Jimmy had started school at Hurlford primary before his father, also James, was demobbed.

H e also learned his trade unionism early - at socialist Sunday school, the traditional cradle of so many labour leaders of the old brigade. On the bookshelves at home were the legendary socialist classics - Hewlett Johnson's The Socialist Sixth Of The World, Jack London's The Iron Heel, John Strachey's The Theory And Practice Of Socialism.

He went to Kilmarnock Academy and might have gone on to higher education, but, for the sons of Kilmarn- ock workers, a weekly wage packet was essential. So, at the age of 15, he went into the signal box in his own village of Hurlford, where his pay was £2 18s 4d a week, less his union subs.

Knapp once described to me his early work in that signal box, tough even for a well-built lad. "We had to use all our body weight to release the signal lever from its lock ing frames." "Now, of course," he reminded me more recently, "in modern signal boxes it's all electronic, covering miles of track."

He became a devoted railway signalman - which may explain why his most publicised industrial triumph was in 1994, when he led his signalmen members through the first big strike after rail privatisation, a 15-week dispute that won them substantial pay rises despite govern- ment opposition. That victory certainly helped when he was challenged for his job in 1999 by Greg Tucker, on the far left. Knapp won the contest by 2 to 1, and was re-elected for another five years, his fourth term in office.

On his election as NUR general secretary in 1983, Knapp became a member of the TUC general council, and served on it for the rest of his life. He was TUC president in 1993-94. The only complaint from delegates was that his deep, gravelly voice sounded more like a train announcement at Glasgow Central station than a comment to a delegate over-running his or her speaking time. Even the Scottish delegates sometimes had difficulty translating that accent.

He also served on the executive board of the Internat- ional Transport Workers Federation, and was a board member of the Unity Trust Bank, and its president from 1989. From 1986, he was the TUC representative on the governing council of Ruskin College, Oxford.

In his private life, Knapp surprised everyone when, in 1990, his 25-year marriage to Sylvia Yeomans split up. He went to live with a German divorcee, Eva Leigh, who he had met at an international trade union conference. The whole incident, gleefully reported in the tabloids, created great acrimony, but Jimmy remained with his new partner, who survives him, as does Fiona, the daughter of his marriage.

James 'Jimmy' Knapp, trade union leader, born September 29 1940; died August 13 2001

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