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John Hannett
General Secretary of Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
John Hannett is the General Secretary of the UK's fourth largest union, Usdaw. He was first elected General Secretary of the 391,000 strong union in May 2004 and was re-elected in September 2008.
John sits on both the Executive Committee and the General Council of the TUC and represents the interests of Usdaw members on a number of Government Commissions.
In May 2007, John was appointed to sit on the Low Pay Commission which was established following the National Minimum Wage Act to advise the Government on the level of the National Minimum Wage and is made up of representatives from all sides of industry.
Most recently, he has also been invited to serve as a Commissioner on the Good Work Commission - an initiative which is planned to shape future thinking and provide insights and understanding about how relationships between people and business are changing.
He has also served on the Women and Work Commission which was set up to look at tackling the gender pay gap and the Independent Advisory Group to the Russell Commission; the focus of the Commission being to develop a national framework for youth action and engagement.
John also sat on the Standing Commission on Carers which reflects the Government's recognition of the campaigning work the Union has been doing around Supporting Parents and Carers.
He has been a Labour Party member for more than 25 years and sat on the National Executive Committee (NEC) from 1998 to 2005. He represents Usdaw on the National Policy Forum and is assigned to the Education and Skills Commission.
Under the Union's Lifelong Learning agenda, John has represented the interests of members on the TUC Union Learn Board and is a Skills for Life advocate.
John has a wide range of experience working with senior Government Ministers, Chief Executives and Company Directors to advance the working lives of Usdaw members and promotes the value of trade union membership at all levels.
