Jenkins, (David) Clive (1926–1999)

Welsh trade union leader. Jenkins was well known as a militant negotiator and a fluent controversialist, and as an advocate of British withdrawal from the European Economic Community. He was a member of the TUC (Trades Union Congress) General Council from 1974. He was a Metropolitan borough councillor (1954–60), editor of Trade Union Affairs, and author of several publications, including The Kind of Laws the Unions Ought to Want (1968), co-authored with J Mortimer, and Computers and the Unions (1978), co-authored with Barrie Sherman.

Jenkins was born in Port Talbot, Wales, where he was educated before going on to Swansea Technical College. He started work in a metallurgical test house in 1940. In 1946 he was branch secretary and area treasurer for the Association of Scientific Workers; in 1947 he was assistant Midlands divisional officer for ASSET (Association of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Technicians). He became transport industrial officer in 1949, and national officer in 1954. He then served as s general secretary of ASSET (1961–68) and, from 1970, as general secretary of the Association of Scientific, Technical, and Managerial Staffs.