Ernie Thornton (13 March 1907 – 29 June 1969) was a British-born Australian trade union leader and member of the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian communist party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been ...

Biography

Born as "Ernest Thornton" and later going by the name Ernie, he was born in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

to tram driver Lewis Thornton and Selina, ''née'' Kerry. Selina left Lewis when Ernie was two, and after taking factory and building jobs Thornton was brought to Sydney by the Dreadnought Trust in 1924 and sent to the Government Training Farm at Scheyville. He was subsequently a construction worker and became a militant unionist. The

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

left him unemployed, and this led him to join the

(CPA). On 9 August 1934 he married Alice Mary "Lila" Felstead, ''née'' Curtis, who was divorced with two sons, at Collins Street in Melbourne. Thornton was elected as an organiser in the Federated Ironworkers Association of Australia (FIA) in 1935. By 1936 he was part-time general secretary, and also a member of the CPA's central committee. Following the recovery of the economy in the late 1930s Thornton was made full-time general secretary and moved to Sydney. In 1945, he attended the

World Trade Union Conference The World Trade Union Conference was a conference that was held between 6–17 February 1945. The conference was participated by countries from all around the world, at the County Hall, London. Regarded as a significant moment within the internat ...

in London alongside many renowned trade unionists. Thornton's position in the FIA was threatened in the 1946 union elections when the Balmain branch, backed by the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Industrial Groups The Industrial Groups were groups formed by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the late 1940s, by Catholic ALP members aligned with B. A. Santamaria's "Movement" within the ALP from 1944, to combat alleged Communist Party infiltration in the t ...

, ran a rival ticket headed by

Laurie Short Laurence Elwyn Short (15 December 1915 – 24 March 2009) was an Australian trade union leader and leading figure in the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Short was the national secretary of the Federated Ironworkers' Association (FIA), now part of ...

. Thornton won but Short took the case to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, which found that "persons unknown" had rigged the ballot, leaving Short as National Secretary. Thornton resigned in 1950 to become Australasia's representative at the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade union, trade unions established on October 3, 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the Int ...

(WFTU) liaison bureau in

Peking Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...

, but he was left without a job when the

Australian Council of Trade Unions The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated trade union, unions and eight t ...

withdrew recognition of the WFTU. The FIA refused to accept him back and Thornton was employed full-time by the Communist Party. A decline in party finances led to his return to manual labour as a crane driver, becoming honorary president of the Sydney branch of the Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Association of Australasia. He died at

Lidcombe Lidcombe () is a suburb in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lidcombe is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Cumberland Council, with a small industrial part in the north in t ...

in 1969 of

myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Ernest 1907 births 1969 deaths Australian trade unionists Trade unionists from Huddersfield British emigrants to Australia Crane operators Australian builders Communist Party of Australia members