Brenda Dean, Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde, (29 April 1943 – 13 March 2018)
was a British
trade unionist
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
and
Labour Party politician.
As general secretary of
SOGAT from 1985 until 1991, she was "the first woman elected to head a major industrial trade union."
[
]
Early life
She was born in Salford; her father was a railway signalman
A signalman is a person who historically made signals using flags and light. In modern times, the role of signalmen has evolved and now usually uses electronic communication equipment. Signalmen usually work in rail transport networks, armed for ...
and her mother worked in a carpet factory. When she was a child the family moved to Eccles, and she attended Stretford High School for Girls.
Trade union career
She began her career as a trade unionist as a teenager,[ initially as a member of the ]National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers
The National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers (NUPBPW) was a British trade union.
History
The union was founded in 1921 as the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding, Machine Ruling and Paper Workers when the National Union o ...
. In 1972 she became assistant secretary of the Manchester branch of the print union SOGAT (Society of Graphical and Allied Trades), and became involved in negotiations over the introduction of new technology to the printing industry. Rising through the union hierarchy, she became President of SOGAT in 1983, and was elected as its General Secretary in 1985, becoming "the first woman elected to lead a major industrial union".
She recognised the threats to her members' jobs of impending changes in the print industry, and, it later became clear, held private meetings with Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
in secret to discuss his plans. During the Wapping dispute
The Wapping dispute was a lengthy failed strike by print workers in London in 1986.
Print unions tried to block distribution of ''The Sunday Times'', along with other newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News International group, after production wa ...
of 1986/87, she "became one of the best-known trade union leaders in Britain."[ However, in her attempts to resolve the ]strike
Strike may refer to:
People
* Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
, "she was bitterly denounced by some people in the militant Fleet Street chapels (union branches) as a “Judas”, she was derided as “a film star” because of her blond good looks and her leadership was decried when she put the survival of the union, with 90% of its members in the provinces, ahead of what was essentially a London dispute."[
In 1991, SOGAT became part of the Graphical, Paper and Media Union. Dean stood for the general secretaryship, but was narrowly defeated by ]Tony Dubbins
Tony Dubbins was a prominent British trade unionist until his retirement from Unite in 2008.
He first became a full-time union official in the National Graphical Association and became general secretary in 1984, leading the union through the ...
, by 78,654 votes to 72,657. Instead, she became the union's deputy general secretary, serving for a single year before resigning.
Member of the House of Lords
Dean was raised to the peerage in October 1993 as Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde, ''of Eccles in the County of Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
'' and was appointed to the Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
in 1998.[
She was a member of the Labour opposition front bench in the House of Lords from 1994 until 1997,][ and a member of the ]National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education
The Dearing Report, formally known as the reports of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, is a series of major reports into the future of Higher Education in the United Kingdom, published in 1997. The report was commissioned by ...
that published an influential report in 1997. She chaired the armed forces pay review body (1999-2004), the Covent Garden market authority (2005–13) and the Housing Corporation, now Homes England, (1997-2003); and was a member of the Royal Commission on House of Lords Reform
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Royal, Iowa, a c ...
in 1999.[
]
Other activities
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...
in 1992.
Her autobiography, ''Hot Mettle'', deals largely with her tenure as SOGAT General Secretary at the time of Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
's battles with her own and other trades unions, notably the Wapping dispute
The Wapping dispute was a lengthy failed strike by print workers in London in 1986.
Print unions tried to block distribution of ''The Sunday Times'', along with other newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News International group, after production wa ...
. She was a vice-president of the Debating Group.[Debating Group](_blank)
, debatinggroup.org.uk; accessed 21 May 2015.
She was interviewed by National Life Stories
National Life Stories is an independent charitable trust and limited company (registered as the ‘National Life Story Collection’) based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork. S ...
in 2007–8 for the 'Oral History of the British Press' collection held by the British Library.[National Life Stories, 'Dean, Brenda (1 of 11) National Life Stories Collection: 'Oral History of the British Press', The British Library Board, 2007-8]
Retrieved 7 October 2017
She became a director for Labour Tomorrow
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
on 28 June 2016, an organisation that funds groups that oppose Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
as Labour leader.
Personal life
From 1977, her partner was Keith McDowall, later deputy director general of the Confederation of British Industry
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...
; they married in 1988.[
Brenda Dean died on 13 March 2018, aged 74.][
]
References
External links
Catalogue of Dean's papers
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde, Brenda Dean, Baroness
1943 births
2018 deaths
Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II
Labour Party (UK) life peers
General secretaries of British trade unions
Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People from Salford
Presidents of British trade unions