Steve Turner (trade unionist)

Turner in 2016

Steve Turner (trade unionist) (born 24 November 1962) is Assistant General Secretary (AGS) of Britain and Irelands largest trade union, Unite the Union. His responsibilities include supporting and organising the union's young^[1] and retired members, the union’s international and political work and Unite's community membership.^[2]

Turner leads for Unite on strategic industrial action and the coordination of support and solidarity for workers engaged in strategically important disputes both within Unite and the wider TUC / Labour movement. He is the National Chairperson of the Peoples Assembly Against Austerity.^[3]

Turner represents Unite on the Trades Union Congress Executive Committee and General Council^[4] and on the Executive and Management Committees of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF).

Turner is a key ally of current Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey.^[5]

He is a member of the Labour Party ^[6] and has three children with his partner Paula Hamilton.

Trade Unionism

Steve Turner started his union life in 1982 when he joined the then Transport & General Workers Union (T&G) aged 19 on his first day as a bus conductor working for London Transport.

He was quickly elected as a shop steward and became active in the union’s youth section.

Following a period of unemployment as bus conductors were phased out of London life in the 1980s, Turner became active in the unions education programme and as well as educating himself (he was awarded an MA in Industrial Relations from Keele University in 1996), taught various local and national shop stewards and activists training courses.

Appointed as a Regional Officer by the T&G’s General Executive Council working in the London Region of the union in 1996 where amongst other groups, he assumed responsibility for organising, supporting and representing members employed by the Ford Motor Company and its supply chain at Dagenham,^[7] Civil Engineering and construction, London’s night-time wholesale markets and the unions 23,000 strong London buses membership.

Turner rose to become National Officer for the Unions Docks and Road Transport Sections in 2003.

He later assumed the union's National Officer for Civil Aviation position and played a leading role in the successful Cabin Crew dispute (2010/11) with British Airways.^[8][9]

In 2011 Turner became the Unions Director of Executive Policy before being appointed by the Unions Executive Committee to Assistant General Secretary in 2013. In recent years, Turner has been at the forefront of successful negotiations to resolve disputes involving Oil Tanker Drivers, London Bus Workers in a dispute about bonuses during the London Olympic games^[10][11] and Northampton Hospital Workers, locked out in 2014.

Turner has been an outspoken critic of austerity, a defender of rights at work including the right to strike^[12] and called for higher pay.^[13]

Since the coalition government were elected in 2010 Turner has criticised many of its positions, including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)^[14] and changes to the social security system, particularly the Bedroom Tax, calling it 'ideologically bankrupt'.^[15]

References