Ken Jackson

Sir Kenneth Joseph Jackson (3 March 1937 – 25 July 2024) was a British trade unionist who was the General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) from 1995 until that union's merger with the Manufacturing Science and Finance (MSF) union to form Amicus in 2001. He subsequently became one of the Joint General Secretaries (JGS) of Amicus.

Life and career Jackson was born and educated in Wigan, Lancashire. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1956 as an electrical technician, and continued in the same profession after re-entering civilian life. In 1966, he was elected as a Branch Secretary in the Electrical Trades Union, later the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EETPU). He became an executive councillor of EETPU in 1987 and its president in 1992. In 1995, following EETPU's incorporation into the AEEU, he became AEEU General Secretary. and received a knighthood in 1999, an unusual honour for a trade union leader. His defeat in 2002 occurred at a time when the trade union movement was moving to the left: he found himself at odds with his counterparts in the movement due to his support of issues such as private-public partnerships and the American conduct of the war on terror.

Jackson became chairman of Nirex, a company which formerly managed disposal of nuclear waste, in December 2001, while he was still a JGS of Amicus.

Jackson died on 25 July 2024, at the age of 87.