Brussels, 22/04/2009
Commenting on the death of Jack Jones on 21 April 2009, ETUC General Secretary John Monks said:
‘Among his many achievements, Jack left an indelible legacy to the European trade union movement. As Chair of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) International Committee he helped shape the ETUC when it was being created in 1973 into an outward-looking and inclusive organisation encompassing Christian and former Communist trade unions as well as social democratic ones so that ETUC now covers 82 national trade union centres in 36 European countries. He clearly rejected restricting it to the then common market and campaigned for workers’ rights and industrial democracy across Europe.’
As part of the many positions he held while being an active trade union leader, Jack Jones was member of the ETUC Executive Committee and a member of the European Economic and Social Committee. After retiring, he took a lively interest in the work of the ETUC-linked European Federation of Retired and Elderly Persons (FERPA).