Jenkins, Clive

Clive Jenkins left school at 14 and attended evening classes in metallurgy at Swansea Technical College. While working at Eaglebush Tinplate Works in Neath he met Harry Knight, General Secretary of ASSET and in 1947 he moved to Birmingham and then London to begin a full-time trade union career. He became General Secretary himself in 1961 and, later, General Secretary of ASTMS following the merger of ASSET with the Association of Scientific Workers in 1968. He became a particularly well-known public figure in the 1970s when the expansion of ASTMS's membership through amalgamations and high-profile recruitment campaigns contributed to the growth in 'white-collar' unionism. In 1988 ASTMS merged with the Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section (TASS) to form MSF. Jenkins was a member of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Council 1974-1989.

Jenkins was briefly a member of the Communist Party until 1954. He joined the Labour Party in 1945 and served as a London Borough Councillor 1954-1960. He stood for selection as a parliamentary candidate in 1964 and 1966 and was a prominent member of the Party's Commission of Enquiry, 1979-1980. He also held various public appointments, including positions with the British National Oil Company, 1979-1982, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, 1980-1988 and the National Economic Development Council, 1983-1989. He died 22 September 1999.

Reference: A & C Black, Who's who, London, 1998. Clive Jenkins, All against the collar, London, 1990. Chris Wrigley, From ASSET to ASTMS: an example of white-collar union growth in the 1960s, Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, No 7 Keele, 1999.