Trade union leader and educator Steve Davison dies at 71
Steve Davison, who served as chair of the executive council of the Amicus trade union from 2003 to 2007 and played a pivotal role in the formation of the first global union, Workers Uniting, has died aged 71. Workers Uniting brought together Amicus, representing 1.2 million members, and the United Steelworkers of the USA and Canada, with 800,000 members. He was also influential in the merger that created the UK's largest union, Unite, in 2007 between Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU).
Alongside his high-level union roles, Davison worked as a tutor at the Trade Union Studies Centre in Bradford, eventually running the centre for several years until its closure in 2015 due to funding cuts. After the centre closed, he took on freelance tutoring for individual unions and taught on international courses, particularly with Norwegian unions.
Early life and career
Born in Alston, Cumbria, to James, a car mechanic, and Audrey (née Fawcett), a district nurse, Davison attended Samuel King's School in Alston. He left Cumbria in 1973 to study history and politics at Bradford University. After settling in West Yorkshire, his first job was as an engineer at Anderton International in Bradford, where he met Diane Maude, who worked on the production line. They married in 1980.
Joining the engineers' union, AEU, Davison quickly became a shop steward and then a factory convener, while also becoming active in the Labour Party and the Trades Council in Keighley. In the mid-1980s, he was made redundant by Anderton and placed on an employment blacklist due to his union activities, a common practice in engineering and construction at the time. This led to a series of poorly paid short-term jobs, including office work in London, before he found a post at the Trade Union Studies Centre in Bradford, teaching basic courses for union members and higher-level diploma units for union reps.
Internationalist work and legacy
A committed internationalist, Davison visited Bangladesh for Amicus and Workers Uniting to help shipbreakers unionise and improve dangerous working conditions. As part of Amicus delegations, he addressed the Venezuelan parliament in 2017 and met Bolivian President Evo Morales in 2008.
He is survived by his wife Diane, their children Jennie and James, three grandchildren, and sisters Val and Judith.
