Colleagues,
following our policy conference I have decided that the time is now right to move on from our great union. I have today given notice of my intention to retire following the TUC Congress, on 12th September.
It has been the honour of my life to have served our members and communities in every capacity to Assistant General Secretary since first elected a shop steward in 1983, as a London bus worker.
It has been a huge pleasure to have worked with so many committed, passionate, inspiring people along the way; from our shop stewards and activists to our officers and staff, our industrial branches to our Executive Council.
We’ve achieved so much since the formation of Unite, never let those achievements be undermined or our history rewritten. We’ve built alliances, worked with our communities and helped to build a wider progressive Labour movement based on our values and solidarity. We have always stood with our members and recognised that we can’t win a better world alone, only by building a broad movement both here at home and overseas can we defeat those that stand against us.
Collectively, you and your predecessors have made me who I am today and inspired me to be the best I could be at all times. I am forever in your debt!
I am very proud to have been actively involved for over 42 years in building a powerful, progressive left organisation, firstly in the T&G and jointly with Amicus colleagues, now Unite. And while I’m leaving Unite, I am of course not ‘retiring’ from our movement or the struggles we face.
We have so much still to do. From reuniting our union and putting it back at the heart of our movement, to delivering practical solidarity with those engaged in both industrial and political struggle. A movement capable of defeating the dangerous and growing threat from the far right and leading the struggle for a progressive left alternative.
I will, as I always have been, right here with you every step of that journey.
Thank you for your solidarity, support, guidance and personal friendships over many years, collectively we make us who we are and we can be very proud of that.
Steve Turner