View source for Jim Slater (trade unionist)

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'''Jim Slater''' (4 October 1923 &ndash; 30 May 1993) was [[British people|British]] [[trade union]] leader.

Born in [[South Shields]], Slater went to sea in 1941, and joined the [[National Union of Seamen]] (NUS).<ref>Arthur Ivor Marsh and Victoria Ryan, ''The Seamen''</ref>  During [[World War II]], he served in the [[Merchant Navy]].  On one occasion his ship was torpedoed and sank, and in line with practice at the time, his pay was immediately stopped.<ref name="odnb">"[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/articleHL/53323 Slater, James Henry]", ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]''</ref>

In 1960, he became a leading figure in new the National Seamen's Reform Movement, which was active in that year's strike.  He was expelled from the industry at the end of the strikes, but continued as a union activist.<ref>Jonathan S. Kitchen, ''The Employment of Merchant Seamen'', p.284</ref>  In order to regain employment in the industry, he had to agree in future to abide by all decision of the union.  He stood for the post of General Secretary of the NUS in 1962, but was easily beaten by [[Bill Hogarth]].  In 1964, he became District Secretary for the North East, and joined the union's executive.  He was active in the seamen's strike of 1966, during which [[Harold Wilson]] implied he was one of several union activists under communist influence, a charge which Slater rejected.<ref name="odnb" />

Slater became Assistant Secretary of the NUS in 1970,<ref name="odnb" /> and in 1974 he beat [[Sam McCluskie]] to become General Secretary.<ref name="independent">Terry Pattinson, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20121106155005/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sam-mccluskie-1601689.html Obituary: Sam McCluskie]", ''[[The Independent]]'', 18 September 1995</ref>  During this time, he successfully negotiated with the British Shipping Federation to retain a [[closed shop]].<ref>Jonathan S. Kitchen, ''The Employment of Merchant Seamen'', p.307</ref>  He also convinced the [[Trades Union Congress]] to support the union's policy to refuse to dump [[nuclear waste]] at sea, and donated union funds to support the [[UK miners' strike of 1984–1985]].<ref name="odnb" />  In 1986, the union's rules compelled Slater to stand down, and he instead became President of the NUS.<ref name="odnb" />

[[Tom Hadaway]] wrote the play "Seafarers" in 1993, based on a true story of Slater being arrested after his [[Geordie]] accent led to him being mistaken for a spy.  The play put the action in Florida and had him mistaken for a Russian, but the original event occurred in Canada, and he was mistaken for a Serbo-Croat.<ref name="odnb" /><ref>Alan Plater, "[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/mar/11/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1 Obituary: Tom Hadaway]", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 11 March 2005</ref>

In the last years of his life, Slater was involved in the campaign for a proper investigation of the sinking of the [[MV Derbyshire]].

==References==
<references />

{{S-start}}
{{s-npo|union}}
{{Succession box|title=General Secretary of the [[National Union of Seamen]]|before=[[Bill Hogarth]]|after=[[Sam McCluskie]]|years=1974&ndash;1986}}
{{Succession box|title=President of the [[National Union of Seamen]]|before=''Position recreated''|after=''Position abolished''|years=1986&ndash;1990}}
{{S-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Jim}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:General secretaries of the National Union of Seamen]]
[[Category:English trade unionists]]
[[Category:People from South Shields]]
[[Category:Trade unionists from Tyne and Wear]]
[[Category:British Merchant Navy personnel of World War II]]