Summary

Machine tool maintenance fitter/millwright, trade unionist, political activist and writer. George was born and raised in Nottingham, England. He migrated to Australia in 1949 eventually settling in the Latrobe Valley, Gippsland where he worked for the State Electricity Commission (SEC). An elected Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) shop steward and OH & S representative, in 1960 he helped wrest control of the Central Gippsland Trades and Labour Council away from Industrial Group/DLP control. He was an elected GTLC office bearer for the next twenty five years helping lead many significant industrial and community struggles. These included the 1977 SEC strike, the GTLC bid to save Yallourn township, and curtailing SEC worker and community exposure to asbestos and other industrial carcinogens. He wrote a number of books including The Asbestos Timebomb (1994), and Four Pence to Join (1987).

Resources

Films

• Peter Gray and Garry Lane, Know Your Friends, Know Your Enemies, Narrated by Max Strong (shop steward) Location Sound by Lou Chin, Peter Gray [this copy courtesy Peter Gray], 1977. Also available at http://vimeo.com/21668006. Details

Photographs

• George Wragg, 1977. images Details