Jon Rogers: a tribute
ON SUNDAY 05 FEBRUARY the labour movement in Britain lost one of its unsung heroes: Jon Rogers died in his beloved Brighton, aged just 59, having suffered from advanced prostate cancer. Quite a few of you will have known Jon, if only by reputation or from his many memorable appearances at UNISON conferences. I knew, and to a degree was mentored by Jon, for more than two decades.
Though still in his mid-20s, Jon emerged as a leading activist in the Lambeth branch of NALGO (the National Association of Local Government Officers), one of UNISON's three precursor unions. He played a significant role in NALGO's 1989 battle over local government pay, a qualified success not really matched since in the subsequent three decades of UNISON's existence. Almost inevitably, he became the local NALGO secretary and then the secretary of Lambeth's main UNISON branch, a role he occupied for some 25 years over two stints. He was also elected as a Greater London representative to our union's national executive council (NEC) for seven consecutive terms before he chose to stand down in 2017. He invested huge amounts of time and energy in the two roles even as he sought to remain a devoted parent to his children, Sian and Daniel. Against his own better judgement, he stood as a candidate for general secretary in 2005 and while he easily gained the nominations of sufficient branches to make the ballot paper, he won only 6.7% of the vote along with the enduring enmity of those around Dave Prentis's leadership of our union.
During Jon's tenure in Lambeth, he ensured that the branch was a consistent champion of the exploited and oppressed in the south London borough and beyond. Reflecting his influence, the branch backed anti-deportation campaigns and invariably provided support to workers in struggle within UNISON's own ranks, not least when the union's national bureaucracy had distanced itself from those workers. Examples etched in my memory include the Hillingdon Hospital cleaners in the mid-1990s. He was one of the few voices on the NEC who was prepared to speak up for Camden's outsourced traffic wardens when they struck for the first time in the summer of 2012, and I knew that Jon would make striking care workers from Doncaster welcome in Lambeth as they battled drastic pay cuts after the privatisation of their jobs in 2014.
He would not have considered himself a brave person, but in my view, Jon showed no small courage in the wake of the leak from with the Greater London regional office that revealed a gross abuse of power - and UNISON's then rules (!) - in the 2015 contest for general secretary. Jon acted to highlight what had transpired in the Greater London regional office, namely the use of union resources to campaign for Dave Prentis’s re-election. Jon didn't hesitate to join the defeated candidates (Roger Bannister, John Burgess and Heather Wakefield) as a claimant against the union before the Trade Union Certification Officer. I had the privilege - and dubious pleasure - of acting as Jon's representative in the hearings before the Assistant Certification Officer in late 2016/early 2017. Along with his precise attention to detail, it was Jon's preparatory work over weekends spent poring over reams of paperwork that my task relatively easy. The eventual judgement in the case certainly fell short of some comrades' hopes, but was a thorough vindication of the stand taken by Jon alongside the other claimants.
Jon was firmly committed to UNISON's supposed founding principle as a lay member led union. With that in mind, he developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the union's rules, earning him the nickname ‘Rulebook Rogers’. While he undoubtedly took some pleasure in hoisting opponents by the petard of the rulebook, he actually saw UNISON's rules as both an instrument and field of struggle. He was also determined to build a non-sectarian left within the union, encompassing members of the Labour Party, the SWP and Socialist Party and no political organisation. His efforts proved a frequent source of frustration, but with the comparative success of Paul Holmes' candidacy for general secretary in 2020 and the victory of the Time for Real Change in the 2021 NEC elections, Jon's vision has begun to come to fruition.
A few of you may have been consistent readers of Jon's almost notorious "labour movement blog". He posted for the last time a few days before his death under the headline "Support the Strikers!", coinciding with the action by NEU, UCU, PCS and rail union members on Wednesday 01 February. Jon's immediate wish list would certainly have included decisive victories for all the thousands of workers who have taken action in recent months. He would also have wished for UNISON members to feature much more prominently among those in battle against employers of whatever political stripe and against the neo-liberal policies of the Tory government. And Jon undoubtedly believed that a clear-cut win for the Time for Real Change slate in the upcoming UNISON NEC elections would bring forward the day when Britain's largest union assumed a far greater role in the resistance.
Jon and I occasionally mulled over the possibility of collaborating on a history of UNISON, focused on our local government service group. Between my own indolence and his worsening condition, it wasn't to be. He did, however, manage to compile an entertaining and insightful, self-published memoir, An Obscure Footnote in Trade Union History. In it he wrote, "There is no better work than rank-and-file trade union activism, representing workers against employers and defending activists against officials." I hope those words will serve as an inspiration to both current and future activists among us.
George Binette
Ex-Camden UNISON (local government) branch secretary, in a personal capacity