Mike Kirby

UNISON Scottish Secretary Mike Kirby is STUC President for 2011-12 he will chair the STUC Congress in Inverness from 23-25 April.

Mike's organisational skills, his negotiating skills and his keen political awareness are needed more than ever as the STUC and Scottish unions gear up for some of the biggest fights we have ever faced to protect the values we hold dear.

On the home front, Mike has been a key part of the STUC's long-standing role in being instrumental in bringing together civic society, faith groups, community groups and pensioners alongside unions to build a common cause against the attacks on the welfare state.

Mike has had a key role in building alliances across unions and Scottish society. In listening, debating and through taking on board and acknowledging what is important to others, he has been able to focus in on what unites us as opposed to what divides us.

Nowhere has this been more evident than in is international work. A voice for Palestine. A voice for Venezuela. Part of a process that saw the PGFTU and Histadrut brought together for full and frank discussions at the STUC in Perth in 2006. It also saw Mike promote a boycott, disinvestment and sanctions position against Israel at the 2009 STUC. And it saw him this year grasp the difficult nettle of what the STUC's relationship with the Histadrut should be.

We wish Mike well for Congress 2012. He has the ability to bring leadership, build alliances, maintain our radical traditions as well as taking forward our treasured commitment to internationalism.