In the 1970s he fought the National Front, notably coming face-to-face with them in the old Sparrow Park near the current Huddersfield bus station and led campaigns both that decade and in the 1980s in the
AUEW for trade union and socialist ideals.
FAMILY AFFAIR: Developers Tony and Sam De Marco outside the former
AUEW building in Corporation Street
Ken (pictured) worked for the tractor-making giant at Banner Lane, Tile Hill, for 23 years as an assembly shopfitter and was a convenor of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (
AUEW) for nine years.
During this period, Pat provided industrial relations advice to a number of trade unions, including the TGWU, electricians union EEPTU and engineering union the
AUEW.
Davey Hall, chairman of the
AUEW division for Tyne shipbuilding, said the claim was a "realistic submission".
One or two more stations offering solidarity, like Didcot near Oxford, where Welsh pickets had won the support of the
AUEW and GMB branches, would have done it.
A spokesman for the
AUEW said: 'This is a terrible blow, no one contemplated the job losses would be on this level.'
He started his trade union career as a shop steward, although the first union he belonged to was the T&GU's rival, the
AUEW.
He left Clydebank High School in 1947 at the age of 14, and after serving his time at Singers, became regional officer for the
AUEW union in Scotland and north-west England in 1972.
Auditions start at 10am in the
AUEW building next to the theatre on Corporation Street.
He claimed that he had been suspended by Lucas and then dismissed because he had no union card and because it was unlikely he would be able to join the
AUEW.
And it was in this city a few years later he would start his trade union career as a shop steward, although the first union he belonged to was the TGWU's rival, the
AUEW.