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WE lost our leader, mentor, comrade and great friend on December 27 2024. Phil Davies, former national secretary of the GMB manufacturing section was taken from us too early and very suddenly at his home in Wigan.
He is survived by his wife Christine, daughters Nicola, Natasha and Emma, son Ben and grandchildren Megan, Jamie, Frankie, Shawn, Layla and Erin.
Davies will not only be remembered with love affection and respect by his family but also be remembered in a similar way in many quarters of the labour and trade union movement where he was regarded as being a tenacious and principled officer who cared deeply for the rights of workers, social justice and the trade union movement.
Davies Joined the Amalgamated Society of Woodcutting Machinists (ASWM) when he was apprenticed to Schreiber Furniture, near his home city of Salford.
He took his trade union membership very seriously. When the ASWM merged with another union, the National Union of Furniture Trade Operatives, in 1983 to become the Furniture Timber and Allied Trades Union (FTAT) it became the oldest trade union in the world by virtue of the merger with the Society of Brush Makers and General Workers, who were formed in 1747, when it was first known as the Manchester Society of Brushmakers. Davies was always very proud of this fact.
In the FTAT he rose through the ranks of the union, from shop steward to executive committee and president. He was deeply involved in supporting the NUM during the miners’ strike and was also involved with the Silentnight workers who were engaged between 1985-87 in what at the time was believed to be the world’s longest-running strike in Barnoldswick, Lancashire.
He became a national officer in 1992 with the Remploy membership as one of his responsibilities. The future battles in Remploy, both in the FTAT and when the union merged with GMB to form its own section, Construction, Furniture, Timber and Allied Trades.
His position as a national officer meant that he took on the responsibility as secretary of the Remploy trade union consortium with the chair of the consortium held by the T&G (now Unite).
Those who came into contact with Davies for any length of time, up until the day of his retirement, would quickly realise that Davies had a special place in his heart for Remploy and the workers.
He was a firm believer that for disabled workers, who wanted to work alongside other disabled workers in a factory, employment should always be there for them. He was by definition completely committed to supported employment.
A prime example is in 1994, when Michael Portillo, then the employment secretary, declared the Priority Suppliers Scheme illegal under EU Law — which was news to the EU. This put at risk at least 20 Remploy factories.
Davies, alongside Kathleen Walker-Shaw who was GMB European officer in Brussels, set up a train of events and meetings that lasted several years. This culminated in the amendment of the EU Public Procurement Directive to specifically allow reserved contracts for supported employment.
In 2008, Gordon Brown’s Labour government closed 29 Remploy factories. The workers at one of the factories campaigned to have a replacement factory in York; Davies alongside his friends and comrades on the Remploy consortium eventually brought into being the York Disabled Workers Co-operative, giving help and support to those with disabilities.
Davies’s relationship with Remploy would be worthy of a book on its own but that would only be only one part of the life of a man who we regard as a giant in the movement. Both in FTAT and GMB he was either part of or led union delegations to all parts of the world including Africa, the US, Asia and Australia, spreading international solidarity with workers.
“Workers of the world unite” was not just a slogan to Davies — he practised it. He was also passionate about safety and during the FTAT years and the GMB years, he played a significant role in getting furniture fire-safe.
Davies’s other passions were his beloved Manchester United FC, fishing and trade union badge collecting.
Davies, socialist, internationalist, a man of high principles, a leader, mentor, friend and comrade will be sorely missed — but his memory will live on in the hearts of us who knew him and loved him and were proud to call him a brother.
Les Woodward is the former GMB national convener for the Remploy consortium.