Vic Turner

EDM number 977 in 2012-13, proposed by Grahame Morris on 28/01/2013.
Categorised under the topic of Industrial relations.

That this House wishes to commemorate the passing of former London dock leader, Vic Turner, who was imprisoned at Pentonville, along with four fellow workers at the order of Edward Heath's National Industrial Relations Court in 1972,who becameknown as the Pentonville Five; notes thatVic Turner and his fellow imprisoned shop stewards were released after one of the largest mass demonstrations ever seen in London and following the threat of a general strike; further notes that Vic Turner was a much-loved family man, who subsequently became both a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Newham and a mayor of the same borough; pays credit to a trades unionist, who in the words of fellow docker and now General Secretary of the Unite Trade Union, Len McCluskey, never lost sight of working class interests and was never swayed from supporting that cause; and recognises that at a time when trades unionists are once again under attack from a Tory-led Government and when many are still being blacklisted by employers for being members of a trades union, the inspirational qualities of working class leaders such as Vic Turner andhis colleagues in the Royal Docks Shop Stewards Committeeare needed more than ever.

This motion has been signed by a total of 21 MPs.