This week: president of the GMB, a star of Cagney and Lacey and an activist on gender

THE trade union activist Mary Turner was the long-standing president of the GMB union and a Labour Party executive member.

The former dinner lady from London had been ill for years but continued in her post as president, chairing the GMB's annual conference in Plymouth last month.

Ms Turner received a CBE for her political service, particularly through the trade union movement, in recognition of her lifetime's work for trade union members throughout the UK.

Elected GMB national president in 1997, she was a union activist in the London borough of Brent for many years and represented the GMB on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.

Born in Tipperary, she was a trade unionist from the day she started work at the age of 16.

First joining the Tailor and Garment Workers Union, she worked at Jackson's Tailors on London's Oxford Street.

Colleagues described her as a trailblazer who never took no for an answer.

When she returned to work in 1970 after having children, she was a dinner lady in Brent and quickly set about organising the female workers who were poorly paid, untrained and treated badly.

She developed a lifelong passion that she would campaign on for decades to come - free school meals.

Having seen hungry children and the stigma of those who had to queue separately for free meals, she ensured free school meals became Labour party policy.

A GMB statement said: "From feeding 600 young marchers during the people's March for Jobs in the 1980s, to fighting the National Front and leading, recruiting and supporting thousands of low paid workers, Mary has led our movement.

"In recognition of her incredible work, Mary was elected to GMB's executive where she served as the only woman out of 40 members."

She chaired the Labour Party in 2004. In 2010, she was awarded an MBE, which was followed by a CBE this year.

THE Canadian actor Harvey Atkin, who has died of cancer aged 74, played Sgt Ronald Coleman in more than 90 episodes of the 1980s US police show Cagney and Lacey.

Atkin appeared in Cagney & Lacey and also as Judge Alan Ridenour on Law and Order.

But many knew him best for his breakout role in Ivan Reitman's 1979 Bill Murray comedy Meatballs. His moustached, bespectacled Morty Melnick - a heavy sleeper - was the target of numerous pranks by the camp counsellors. The film ended with Morty waking up on a raft in the middle of a lake.

Atkin is survived by his wife, Celia, his daughter, Lisa, and his son Danny.

THE activist Betty Dukes, who has died aged 67, was a shop worker who took the retail giant Walmart all the way to the US Supreme Court in the largest gender bias class-action lawsuit in US history.

Dukes was the lead plaintiff in Dukes v Wal-Mart. The 2001 lawsuit alleged the company violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race, creed or gender.

Dukes claimed Wal-Mart systemically paid women less than male counterparts and promoted men to higher positions at faster rates than women. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011, where it was dismissed.

Dukes worked for Wal-Mart until last year.