Ernest Bevin

Before he was a minister, Bevin was the greatest union builder in British history. A former carter, he negotiated the 1922 merger of fourteen unions into the Transport and General Workers' Union and led it until 1940, when it was the largest union in the world. As wartime Minister of Labour he used that experience to manage the workforce by agreement, extending joint production committees. Left critics said he ran the union like a general; it lasted, as part of Unite, for a century.