Leslie Hodgson (29 August 1914 – 17 January 1979) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 ...

. Born in

Driffield Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By road, it is north-east of Leeds ...

,"Leslie Hodgson", ''Federation News'', vols.27-29, p.29 Hodgson came into contact with the trade union movement by playing

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alongside coal miners. He trained as a carding machine operator in the woollen industry, and joined the

Card Setting Machine Tenters' Society The Card Setting Machine Tenters' Society (CSMTS) was a trade union representing workers responsible for setting up textile carding machines in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded in late 1872 as a New Model Union and was initia ...

(CSMTS) in 1933.Alice Prochaska, ''History of the General Federation of Trade Unions 1899-1980'', pp.219-221 In 1951, he was elected as the union's General President.Malcolm Speirs, ''One hundred years of a small trade union'', pp.69. 83 The CSMTS was one of the smallest unions affiliated to the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), and in 1952, Hodgson was elected as the GFTU's assistant general secretary, standing down from his post in the CSMTS. The GFTU's general secretary, George Bell, was in poor health, and the association had been struggling to recruit a suitable replacement. The union's management committee agreed with Hodgson that, if his work was satisfactory, he would be promoted within two years. However, when he arrived, Bell announced that he did not wish to retire and did not want an assistant. Hodgson devoted his time as assistant general secretary to external training and learning the culture of the organisation. Early in 1953, the management committee convinced Bell to take a six-month leave of absence. At the end of this period, Bell finally decided to retire, and Hodgson was appointed as his replacement.

Alice Prochaska Alice Prochaska (born 12 July 1947) is a former archivist and librarian, who served as Pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford and Principal of Somerville College, Oxford, from 2010 to 2017. Career Alice Prochaska studied at Somerville ...

, who wrote the official history of the GFTU, describes the modern organisation as "substantially Leslie Hodgson's creation", although noting that he ensured all his innovations were proposed as the idea of a member union or one of its representatives, and had a low profile in the national union movement.Alice Prochaska, ''History of the General Federation of Trade Unions 1899-1980'', pp.245-246 Under Hodgson's leadership, the GFTU gained a significant number of new members, including some larger unions, and for the first time set up a research service. Hodgson announced in 1976 that he wished to retire, but the Management Committee decided that none of the first set of candidates to replace him were suitable, so he served until December 1977, spending the last three months alongside his successor, Peter Potts. A few days after retiring, Hodgson was diagnosed with cancer, and he died in the middle of January 1979.''England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgson, Leslie 1914 births 1979 deaths General Secretaries of the General Federation of Trade Unions (UK) Trade unionists from Yorkshire People from Driffield