New Unison president Gordon McKay has spoken of how challenging workplace bullying inspired his union activism. The mental health nurse from Ayrshire, who has just been elected the president of the public sector trade union for 2018-19, said he became a union activist after witnessing a colleague being publicly ‘dressed down’ by a manager in the early 1990s.
‘I just thought: "You know, I’m not putting up with any of that and if I can help people who either want to challenge that sort of behaviour or just need someone to talk to, then yeah, that’s going to be me,"’ he said.
Building on his work as a mental health nurse, Mr McKay will continue to work on the union’s current campaigns, including ‘Investing in the future of the NHS’ and ‘Mental health matters’, to argue for better funding for mental health services.
In his role as Union president he hopes to work with others to help continue making the case for public services and their importance in society.
‘You don’t achieve anything in the trade union movement by yourself. What you do is you achieve it with other people,’ Mr McKay said.