Long-serving union official to leave Chch

Press, 10 October 1984, Page 8

Long-serving union official to leave Chch

Mr Gordon Walker, who has been a trade union official since 1949, will leave Christchurch and the union movement in two weeks to live in Australia. Mr Walker, who is 54, is secretary of the South Island Fire Brigades Union, president of the Fire Brigades Federation, and for the last two years has been secretary of the Canterbury Trades Council. He went to sea as a youth and through his work in the inter-island “steamer express” became involved in union affairs, joining the executive of the Cooks and Stewards’ Union in 1949. He went on strike for four months with other members of the union in 1951, during the waterfront dispute. He became a fireman and was elected president of the Canterbury Fire Brigades Union in 1957. His book on the 1947 Ballantyne’s fire was published earlier this year. Mr Walker has been secretary or advocate for

stationary engine drivers, brewery workers, gas workers, rope and twine workers, and firemen. He has attended many annual conferences of the Federation of Labour and is a member of the Canterbury steering committee of the proposed Council of Trade Unions.