OBITUARY - JIMMY MCAULEY

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2023 :: RMTnews 28 Time and tide wait for no-one, and with the recent passing of Jimmy McAuley, RMT and the international trade union movement have lost a committed fighter for justice and employment rights throughout the world. Jimmy came from a Glasgow seafaring family and after joining the NUS in the late 1950s, he sailed to many parts of the globe including several visits to Cuban ports before the US imposed its illegal trade embargo in 1962. By the mid-60s Jimmy was living in Vancouver, shipping out of the west-coast Canadian port, and soon involved in union struggles. In 1949 Canadian shipowners launched a brutal attack on the Canadian Seamen’s Union by importing gangsters from the corrupt ‘Seafarers International Union’ in New York to break the CSU. A decade after this notorious episode Jimmy joined the CSU veterans of 1949 fighting for union representation for Canadian seafarers on coastal vessels through the Marine section of the ILWU Local 400 in Vancouver. By the 1980s Jimmy was back in Glasgow working on Cal-Mac Ferries and taking part in May Day rallies, anti- racist marches. Jimmy could be seen on every progressive march or demonstration in Glasgow and attending Scottish Morning Star conferences. Jimmy became a regular at NUS Glasgow Shipping Branch and joined the Branch committee following the NUS/NUR merger to form RMT. Jimmy was nominated to attend Shipping Biennial General Meetings and RMT Annual General Meetings on several occasions. Jimmy’s support for the International Brigades Memorial Trust meant he often travelled to International Brigades Commemoration ceremonies in central Scotland. He loved the memorial to Dolores Ibárruri (‘La Pasionaria’) on Clyde St, near the Broomielaw in Glasgow. He was very proud of the unveiling of the Seafarers’ Blockade Runners Memorial in 2019, which was the result of fifteen years of hard work by Glasgow RMT Shipping Branch. Jimmy McAuley campaigned in support of the Liverpool Dockers during the 1995 lock-out by Mersey Docks & Harbour Board, becoming a patron of the Dockers’ Community Advice Service Association, ‘The Casa’ in Hope Street, Liverpool. In 1998 Bro McAuley joined “MV Global Mariner” for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) 18- month worldwide campaign voyage against Flags of Convenience. During the ship’s visit to Bangkok, Jimmy became personally involved with the Seafarers’ Union of Burma, in exile in Thailand. He supported the SUB with the assistance of the late Bob Crow for many years. In Bangkok Jimmy met his wife who worked for a Thai trade union and assisted with organising the SUB when Jimmy travelled to Thailand on leave. Jimmy appears several times in the ITF film ‘Burmese Cowboy’, available on YouTube. “MV Global Mariner” also called at Vancouver on the campaign and Jimmy met many of his ‘old’ shipmates and stalwarts of the 1949 Canadian Seamen’s Union strike. In 2000, Jimmy McAuley returned to live in Glasgow, working for Northlink Ferries out of Aberdeen and resumed his RMT Glasgow Shipping Branch activities. As a delegate to the RMT AGM in Southport in 2001 he was nominated to attend the 2002 ITF World Congress in Vancouver. Once again, Bro. McAuley was welcomed by staunch CSU veterans of 1949, as a well liked and respected shipmate and comrade. On retirement Jimmy McAuley continued his RMT activities and found time to visit older shipmates in hospital or at home. Jimmy considered trade union welfare a vital commitment to members who had supported the Union throughout their working life. On Bro. McAuley’s passing, his great friend and shipmate from “MV Global Mariner”, Shwe Tun Aung summed up the person Jimmy was with these words: “Such a kind, honourable man and a true Trade Unionist”. Go well, “wee mac” and “Peace and Love” to his family in Bangkok and Glasgow and his many friends and comrades in RMT and around the world. Jimmy McAuley: July 5, 1942 - 31 October 31, 2022 OBITUARY JIMMY MCAULEY Stuart Hyslop of Glasgow Shipping branch looks at the life of an NUS/RMT stalwart