Jimmy Lafferty - a tribute by Steve Kelly, Unite London Construction Branch Secretary
I was deeply saddened to hear that Jimmy Lafferty had passed away on 23rd December 2010. Tragically Jimmy died
only 2 weeks after being diagnosed with a tumour on the brain, he was
aged just 51. The rank and file electrical industry has lost a giant in more
ways than one. Jimmy was from County Roscommon in Ireland and came to London in the early 80s like many before him looking for work. Jimmy
worked on the Lyolds building in the City of London for Balfour Kilpatrick. I was an apprentice at the time and I often heard older sparks talk about
it as a legendary job - the NatWest tower and the Barbican Centre were
also mentioned in this way. It was an organised job with elected stewards and
safety reps, often against Eeptu wishes, and there were a number of
strikes and sit ins with Jimmy always involved leading the troops,
causing havoc for the good of his fellow workers. That's what us sparks
have done over the years and it has proved to be very succesful -
if it was left to the union beaurcrats our industry
would have been dead and buried long ago. The rank and file took on the bosses
and always will.
I first met Jimmy 20 years ago at the London Construction
branch. He was a real character - large as life, very comical, a wind
up merchant, kind, considerate and a great comrade, a fighter all the
way. Even when Jimmy wasn't on a large site that was organised he would
take on employers single handed and always got the upper hand. This
would be graphically described every month at branch meetings. Jimmy
soon developed the art of handling tribunals and became the man in London to get
you holiday pay or notice pay. He would take a chance, something our
unions need to do instead of playing by the book. Laws can be broken and
should be for the benefit of workers.
Jimmy's last big job was the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He was a safety rep there. Like many Jimmy
struggled to get work after that. The reason became clear in 2009 when he
recieved his blacklist file, all 12
pages of it. Jimmy went into overdrive for others and afterwards was very
active in the blacklist supporters group, pushing for civil claims under
misuse of the data protection act much to the annoyance of officials from unite the
union. Jimmy rang me the day he had been diagnosed and was more concerned
with blacklisting claims and tribunal cases than thinking of his own
health and wellbeing. That sums the man up - a massive loss to the
sparks fraternaty. The ones left behind must fight all day, every day, in
memory of big Jim Lafferty. Unfortunatley Jim never saw justice - we owe it
to him to keep fighting.
He will be sadly missed - a very popular fella. Deepest sympathy
to his family and many relatives in Ireland.
Steve
Socialist Appeal wishes to add our own condolences to the family and friends of Jim at this very sad time.
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