David Anthony Hearn (4 March 1929 – 31 December 2019), known as Tony Hearn, was a British

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

leader.

Biography

Hearn attended

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

. He began working for the

Association of Broadcasting Staff The Association of Broadcasting and Allied Staffs (ABS) was a British broadcasting trade union. The organisation was founded in 1945 with the merger of the BBC Staff (Wartime) Association and the Association of BBC Engineers to form the BBC St ...

(ABS) in 1955, as assistant to the General Secretary, Leslie Littlewood. He moved up through the ranks, becoming one of the Assistant General Secretaries, Deputy General Secretary and eventually General Secretary in 1972. He also became Secretary of the loose Federation of Broadcasting Unions.Hearn, David Anthony
, ''Who Was Who 2024'' In 1984, Hearn took the ABS into a merger with the

National Association of Theatrical and Kine Employees The National Association of Theatrical Television and Kine Employees (NATTKE) was a trade union in the United Kingdom which existed between 1890 and 1984. It represented employees who worked in theatres, cinemas and television. History The un ...

, which formed the

Broadcasting and Entertainment Trades Alliance The Broadcasting and Entertainment Trades Alliance (BETA) was a short-lived British entertainment trade union. It was founded in 1984 with the merger of the Association of Broadcasting Staff and the National Association of Theatrical Television ...

(BETA). BECTU,
BECTU's History
He became joint General Secretary of BETA with John Wilson, then sole head of the union in 1987. In 1991, he led BETA into a further merger, this time with the Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians, which produced the

Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (BECTU), formerly the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union, is a former British trade union that became a sector of the Prospect trade union in the United ...

(BECTU). Hearn became its first General Secretary, a position he held until 1993. Hearn died on 31 December 2019, at the age of 90.

References

Sources

Asa Briggs Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs (7 May 1921 – 15 March 2016) was an English historian. He was a leading specialist on the Victorian era, and the foremost historian of broadcasting in Britain. Briggs achieved international recognition during his lon ...

, ''History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom'' 1929 births 2019 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford British trade union leaders {{UK-trade-unionist-bio-stub