ONE of the most important mining union figures of the modern era, Mick Watson, died on Tuesday from complications associated with a melanoma, aged 78.
Tributes have arrived from across the political spectrum for the Branxton family man and golf fanatic, who followed his father into the mines in 1969 and who rose through the ranks of the union to be elected full-time district vice-president in 1988, before taking over the presidency in 1991 and holding it for 12 years until he retired in 2003.
