Wright, Tom (1902 - 1981)

He joined the Communist Party of Australia in 1923 and was appointed Financial Secretary by 1924. In that same year Wright had been appointed to the NSW Branch Executive of the Sheet Metal Workers' Union [SMWU]. He was the NSW Branch Secretary from 1936 until 1972, and was Federal President of the Union from 1940 until, again, 1972. Wright pioneered amalgamations of the SMWU with the Jewellers' & Stove Makers' Unions in the 1930s and 1940s and contributed to the formation of the Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union. At the time of his retirement in 1972 he was the NSW State President and National Vice-President of the Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union.

Wright was also a promoter of the ACTU (1926-1927) and was the Sheet Metal Workers' Unions' delegate from (at least) 1938 to 1972, serving on the ACTU Executive for many years and on its Shipbuilding Sub-Committee from 1946 until 1963. He was actively involved on the Executive of the NSW Labor Council for an almost unbroken period from the 1920s until his retirement in 1972. In 1943, Wright helped found the Metal Trades Federation on which he was a Sheet Metal Workers' Union delegate.

Tom Wright played a substantial part in the long campaign to achieve equal pay for women and was active in campaigns on Aboriginal rights having written an influential pamphlet on the subject in 1939.

• Labor Council of New South Wales (1908 - )
• Sheet Metal Working Industrial Union of Australia (1913 - 1945)
• Amalgamated Metal Workers Union (i) (1973 - 1976)