Thomas Henry Jones OAM (2 March 1924 – 26 March 2014) was an Australian politician and

trade union 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 benefits ...

leader. He served the Labor Party as member for

Collie Collies form a distinctive type of herding dogs, including many related landraces and standardized breeds. The type originated in Scotland and Northern England. Collies are medium-sized, fairly lightly-built dogs, with pointed snouts. Man ...

from 1968 until his retirement in 1989.

Early life

Jones was born in Donnybrook,

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. He worked as a call boy with the railways at the beginning of his career after moving to

in 1929. In 1947 he joined the

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

mining industry and in 1951 was elected General Secretary of the Coal Miners Industrial Union - the youngest person ever elected to that position. He also served as Secretary of the Collie Coal Miners Combined Union. Tom Jones was also responsible as an industrial advocate for winning the 35-hour week as an Award Condition for Australian workers.

Political life

Jones was elected as member for Collie-Wellington in 1968 and served as the

Labor 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 la ...

Member for 21 years. His retirement in 1989 saw the National Party candidate Hilda Turnbull become the member for Collie. During his parliamentary career he was active in the policies of Government for the coal mining industry. He was Chairman of the State Parliamentary Party during the period of the

John Tonkin John Trezise Tonkin AC (2 February 1902 – 20 October 1995), popularly known as "Honest John", was an Australian politician. A member of the Labor Party, he served as a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for a record 44 ...

Government. In 1974, with the Labor Party in Opposition, he was a member of the

Tonkin Shadow Ministry The Tonkin shadow ministry was a Shadow Cabinet led by the Opposition Leader and leader of the Labor Party, John Tonkin, in the Parliament of Western Australia. While serving no formal status—only the Leader and Deputy Leader received remunerat ...

Medal of the Order of Australia

Jones holds the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

, granted for his service as a member of the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House, Perth, Parliament House in the Western Australian capi ...

, and for his service to the trade union movement and the welfare of the elderly.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Tom 1924 births 2014 deaths Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly People from Donnybrook, Western Australia Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia

Early life

Political life

Medal of the Order of Australia

See also

References