Jim Healy (trade unionist)
| James 'Big Jim' Healy | |
|---|---|
 |
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| General Secretary of the Waterside Workers' Federation | |
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In office 1937–1961 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 22, 1898 West Gorton, Manchester |
| Died | June 12, 1961 (aged 63) Darlinghurst, New South Wales |
| Occupation | Waterside worker |
James "Big Jim" Healy (22 March 1898 – 13 July 1961) was an Australian trade unionist and communist activist. Healy served as General Secretary of the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia from 1937 to his death in 1961, a period when the union recovered from its defeat in the 1928 waterfront strike to become one of the most powerful trade unions in Australia. Healy was one of the most prominent public representatives of the communist movement in Australia during the Cold War.
Healy was born at West Gorton in Manchester, the son of corporation labourer Dominic Healy and cotton-worker Mary Ellen, née Schaill. He attended St Francis of Assisi parish school and began assisting Labour Party canvassers at the age of 8. He enlisted in the 8th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1915; served until he was wounded in action on the Western Front in 1918 and discharged. On his return he moved to Scotland to work as a plate-layer in the tramways.
On 19 July 1919 Healy married woollen weaver Elizabeth McGowan at St Cuthbert's Catholic Church in Edinburgh. They and their three sons emigrated to Queensland in 1925, where Healy began work as a fireman and boiler attendant at Mackay. He became a wharf labourer in 1927 and the following year was elected to the management committee of the Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) becoming branch president in 1929. Disappointed with the underperformance of various Labor governments in response to the Great Depression, Healy joined the Communist Party of Australia in 1934 after a tour of the Soviet Union.
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