William Elger (1891 – 6 November 1946) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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. Born in London, Elger's father was Austrian, and his mother was Scottish. He relocated to Edinburgh and became a clerical worker. He became active with the Edinburgh Trades Council, serving as its president in 1921/22. In 1922, he was elected as

General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress The General Secretary of the STUC is the chief permanent officer of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, and a major figure in the trade union movement in the United Kingdom. The Secretary is responsible for the effective operation of the STUC and ...

(STUC).Ian MacDougall, ''Voices from home'', p.512 His focus was on increasing membership of the STUC, encouraging Scottish unions to merge into their UK-wide counterparts in order that the larger body would then affiliate. Although this approach was unpopular with Scottish

trades council A labour council, trades council or industrial council is an association of trade union, labour unions or local union, union branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, ...

s, which saw their influence reduced, it proved successful, with membership growing by more than a third during his secretaryship. Elger was also elected to

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Ghlaschu'') is the Local government in Scotland, local government authority for Glasgow, Glasgow City council area, Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Glasgow was former ...

, representing the Labour Party in Ruchill."New Secretary of Scots TUC", ''

Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'', 28 January 1947 From 1940 to 1946, he additionally served as president of the Clerical and Administrative Workers' Union.Union Ancestors,
Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staffs
He died in office in 1946.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elger, William 1891 births 1946 deaths Councillors in Glasgow General secretaries of the Scottish Trades Union Congress Scottish Labour councillors