Obituary published in the magazine of the Unite Faithworkers’ Branch, which represents those working for faith organisations in the UK
Rev Tony Williamson, who has died 85, was one of Britain’s leading ‘worker priests’, a lifelong activist and a committed trade unionist for 60 years. Tony was an early supporter of the Faith Workers’ branch after its founding in its original form in 1994 and remained an active branch representative 25 years later until just before his death.
Tony’s trade union record reaches back to 1958 when he joined Pressed Steel, a car body factory in Cowley, an Oxford suburb. In 1971 be became chairman of the factory’s Transport & General Workers’ Union 5/60 branch. The largest TGWU branch at the time with over 6,000 members, he remained chair for 16 years.
Tony outside the trade union hall on Cowley Road, Oxford where he held hundreds of Transport & General Workers’ Union meetings during his 16 years as chair of the 5/60 union branch Foto: HW April 2018
Tony was an unusual union leader. He was one of a small group of post-war Church of England priests who, rather than running parishes, saw their calling in manual labour alongside ordinary workers. In 1960 Tony became the first Anglican minister to be ordained while in factory work, and he remained employed as a forklift truck driver in the factory (later part of British Leyland and Rover) for 30 years.
He was a union leader at a time of industrial conflict and UK car industry decline and was involved in many labour relations struggles. Widely respected by his work colleagues and largely by management, he saw his role as his Christian mission but never proselytized on the shop floor.
At the height of a labour dispute in 1971 the Sun newspaper described him as “one of the toughest and most remarkable trade union leaders in Britain”. The paper quoted one of the factory “bosses” as saying “(Tony’s) always very polite but completely dedicated to his men. It takes a box of gelignite to move him an inch (in negotiations)”.
Born near Leicester in 1933 and educated at Trinity College Oxford and Cuddesdon theological college, Tony inherited his instinct for fighting injustice from his father. Rev Joe Williamson, an Anglican minister, grew up in poverty in east London, struggled to be ordained and then campaigned in the 1950s in Stepney, east London to clear slums and open refuges for prostitutes.
Tony became a TGWU representative on the canteens committee soon after entering the factory and later helped senior union colleagues with paperwork and record keeping. Tony acknowledged that his educated, middle class background meant he lacked an instinctive feel for leading union campaigns, yet his commitment and organizational skills proved assets for local union leaders.
A long-running dispute starting in the late 1960s over management’s attempts to end piecework was a turning point. In 1971 Tony was part of three weeks of intense negotiations in which he helped draft 22 versions of the final agreement. He was also skilled at handling branch meetings, including open air mass gatherings with thousands of workers. He was involved in national-level negotiations, including with Moss Evans, who became TGWU general secretary.
Evans later remarked affectionately that his team at Pressed Steel was unusual. The others in the local union leadership had working class backgrounds but were also magistrates. “What chance do I have in Cowley with a negotiating team consisting of three magistrates and a parson?” he asked.
Tony saw his trade union work as inseparable from his worker priest role as a practical problem solver. He rejected the ideological battles pursued in the 1970s by militant union leaders in Morris Motors, the sister car factory in Cowley. Tony was also a successful Labour politician, serving for decades in senior positions on both Oxford city and Oxfordshire country councils, and as Lord Mayor of Oxford. He advocated for more social housing, and workers regularly crossed the factory (often with management support) to consult Tony on his forklift about a housing problem. He always had a notepad ready to record their concerns.
After leaving the factory Tony worked from 1989-2000 as Oxford Diocese director of education, managing with his team 270 church schools.
Tony became most active in the Faith Workers branch in retirement. In the period 2007-2008 he was asked to advise a committee of the General Synod on the possible formation of a clergy professional association, with some in the Church keen to draw on his unusual mix of religious and union experience.
He offered clear guidance. In a memo in 2010 to senior Church leaders, for instance, he sought to reassure them that heated negotiations should be seen separately from final agreements. “In my trade union and political experience there is an enormous difference between claims and settlements” he wrote.
He became a representative in south-east England of the Faith Workers’ branch in 2009, aged 75, regularly attending training courses to remain well-informed of union practice. He also on occasion ran the branch telephone helpline, taking dozens of calls a month from often distressed priests and faith workers.
Branch officials recall his energy, sensitivity and wisdom. He was ready to represent members interests to anyone, including bishops. One branch leader said: “If you’ve been branch chair at the Cowley car factory, you’re not scared of a bishop, and Tony certainly wasn’t”.
He was busy with union casework even in his final weeks, travelling from his home in Watlington near Oxford to London to support a member in need. In a condolence letter to Tony’s family, Stephen Trott, chair, Faith Workers’ branch, described Tony as “one of the most remarkable trade union leaders of our generation”.
Canon Tony Williamson was born on 2 September 1933 and died on 12 February 2019. Barbara, his wife of 56 years predeceased him, as did Jill, his second wife. He is survived by his four children Ruth, Paul, Ian and me, and eight grandchildren.
Hugh Williamson