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The Right Honourable
The Lord Woodley
The Right Honourable The Lord Woodley
	Official portrait, 2022
Joint-General Secretary of Unite the Union
	In office; 1 July 2007 – 31 January 2011 Serving with Derek Simpson
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Len McCluskey
General Secretary of the TGWU
	In office; 1 May 2004 – 30 June 2007
Preceded by	Bill Morris
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Member of the House of Lords; Lord Temporal
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 2 November 2020; Life peerage
Personal details
Born	2 January 1948 (age 76); Wallasey, England
Political party	Labour

Anthony Woodley, Baron Woodley (born 2 January 1948) is a British trade unionist who was the Joint-General Secretary of Unite, a union formed through the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union, from 2007 to 2011. Despite stepping down as Joint-General Secretary, he remained as the Head of Organising for Unite until December 2013 and is still a consultant to the union. He was previously the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers union (T&G) from 2004 to 2007.

He was created a Labour life peer in November 2020 with the title Baron Woodley,^[1] of Wallasey in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral,^[2] after initially declining the peerage.^[3]

Early life

Born in Wallasey, Cheshire (now Merseyside), he was educated at a secondary modern school on the Wirral. At the age of 15, he was taken on by the Ocean Steam Ship Company, working as a steward for four years. In 1967, he started working for Vauxhall Motors at Ellesmere Port, where he first joined the TGWU.

Trade unionist

In 1980, he was elected as a full-time union convenor; his father George had also been a union convenor at the plant for the National Union of Vehicle Builders. He was also appointed as a full-time district official of the TGWU in 1989, later becoming the National Officer of the Vehicle Building and Automotive Group, and was elected as TGWU Deputy General Secretary in 2002.

General Secretary

He first came to national prominence when, on 30 May 2003, he was elected to succeed Bill Morris as General Secretary of the TGWU. He received 66,958 votes, 21,822 more than the second-placed candidate Jack Dromey, who was widely perceived as the Blairite candidate. He was considered to be a member of the so-called "Awkward Squad" of trade union leaders opposed to New Labour policies that they perceived to be against the interests of working people.

After his election he said in an interview with The Independent newspaper:

"A priority for stronger unions in the workplace must be a repeal of the anti-union laws ... British employment laws make it easier and cheaper to sack workers than on the Continent. I will campaign to stop the scandal of British workers being the cannon fodder of Europe."

He later served as one of the two Joint-General Secretaries of Unite, which was formed after a merger between the TGWU and Amicus. He stepped down from this role in January 2011.

The Sun newspaper

At the 2009 Labour Party Conference, Woodley tore up a copy of The Sun newspaper as he made a speech.^[4] This was following the paper's announcement that they would be supporting the Conservative Party at the subsequent general election, having backed the winning Labour Party at the previous three elections.

On tearing up the paper, he said:

"In Liverpool, we learnt a long time ago what to do [tear the paper]. I suggest the rest of the country does the same thing."

This was a reference to The Sun's controversial reporting of the Hillsborough Disaster 20 years earlier, which had caused widespread public outrage, particularly in Liverpool, as the disaster claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans, who mostly lived in or near the city. Many people on Merseyside still refuse to buy the newspaper and a number of newsagents still refuse to stock it.

Personal life

Woodley is also the President of Football Conference North side Vauxhall Motors F.C. despite being a childhood supporter of Everton FC. He lives in Ellesmere Port. He married Janet Timmis and they have a son (born September 1990).

References

^ "Contact information for Lord Woodley - MPS and Lords - UK Parliament". Archived from the original on 2 November 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
^ "Crown Office | the Gazette". Archived from the original on 23 December 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
^ "Ex-Unite leader Tony Woodley turns down peerage offered by Jeremy Corbyn". LabourList. Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
^ "Union boss rips up copy of Sun". BBC News. 30 September 2009. Archived from the original on 15 December 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2010.

External links

Video clips

Greedy oil companies in 2008 on YouTube

News items

Trade union offices
Preceded by Margaret Prosser	Deputy General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union 2002–2003	Succeeded by Jack Dromey
Preceded by Bill Morris	General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union 2003–2007	Succeeded by Office Abolished
Preceded by Office Created	General Secretary of Unite 2007–2011 With: Derek Simpson	Succeeded by Len McCluskey
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by The Lord Johnson of Marylebone	Gentlemen Baron Woodley	Followed by The Lord Bellingham