General Council Report 2024
Christine Esteve, who died last August, worked in a creative and marketing role in the TUC’s press department from 1980 to 1988. Subsequently, she became a project director with Unity Trust Bank before moving to France.
Charles Diver, who died last September, worked as a bar manager at the TUC’s National Education Centre in north London from 1992 to 2000.
Ken Jackson, who died in July, was general secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) from 1995 to 2001, and joint general secretary of Amicus (now part of Unite) from 2001 until 2002. He also served on the TUC General Council from 1993 to 2001. After working as an electrician with the RAF, he joined the Electrical Trade Union (ETU), which
later became the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EETPU). He assumed responsibility for the union’s North West region in the 1980s, becoming general secretary of the merged AEEU in 1995. Knighted by Tony Blair’s government in 1999, he was also vice president of the Trade Union Committee for European and Transatlantic Understanding.
Jane Loftus, who died last November, was CWU president and chair of the union’s postal executive, and a member of the General Council from 2019 to 2023. She joined the Post Office in 1982, soon becoming a union rep, before moving to the Royal Mail, where she was a hugely effective representative of workers at local, divisional and national level. She was elected to the CWU’s executive in 2002, becoming national president in 2009. A passionate champion of women trade unionists, she was a proud internationalist, peace campaigner and activist with Stand Up To Racism.
Richard Rosser, who died in April, was general secretary of the TSSA from 1989 until his retirement in 2004, serving on the General Council from 2000 to 2004. A determined champion of transport and travel industry workers, his leadership of TSSA came at a turbulent time. This included the privatisation of Britain’s railways, during which he played a pivotal role securing union recognition and terms of service with the various companies that took over from British Rail. He started working full-time for the TSSA in his early twenties after the union spotted his skillful negotiating on behalf of London Underground workers. A Labour councillor during the 1970s, he was also chair of Labour’s NEC in 1997–98 and, upon his retirement, was created a
Labour peer as Baron Rosser of Ickenham. He served as shadow defence minister and shadow spokesperson for transport and home affairs in the Lords.
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