Gavin Laird
Sir Gavin Laird, CBE, was a trade unionist, who became General-Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) and a Member of the Court of the Bank of England.
Growing up in Clydebank he attended a local high school then began working for Singer.[1] He became a Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) shop steward there, then convenor.[1]
Three years after taking up a full time position with the union, he was elected to the AEU executive and later appointed AEU general secretary, remaining in that position after the merger which created the AEEU.[1] He addressed the Confederation of British Industry annual conference in 1986 - an unusual move for a trade unionist at the time.[1]
He appeared as a "castaway" on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 25 October 1992,[2] received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1994,[3] was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) under Margaret Thatcher's government and knighted in 1995 at the behest of Tony Blair.[1]
He retired from the AEEU in 1995[1] and subsequently died.[4]
References
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union 1982–1994 with Eric Hammond 1992-1994 |
Succeeded by Paul Gallagher |
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