Alan Ritchie (born 1951Gary Daniels and John McIlroy, ''Trade Unions in a Neoliberal World'') is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

trade unionist A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

, currently an organiser at GMB Scotland. Ritchie left school at the age of fifteen, and became a joiner in a shipyard in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. He joined the

Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers The Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers (ASW) was a British trade union representing carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materia ...

, which subsequently became part of the

Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) was a British and Republic of Ireland, Irish trade union, operating in the construction industry. It was founded in 1971, and merged into Unite (trade union), Unite on 1 January ...

(UCATT). In 1971, he was prominent in the

Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) was a Scottish shipbuilding consortium, created in 1968 as a result of the amalgamation of five major shipbuilders of the River Clyde. It entered liquidation, with much controversy, in 1971. That led to a " work-in ...

work-in, which attempted to save the shipyards.Mike Berry,
Personnel Today interviews… Alan Ritchie, general secretary, Ucatt
, ''Personnel Today'', 21 May 2007 Ritchie became active in the

Scottish Trades Union Congress The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) is the national trade union centre in Scotland. With 40 affiliated unions as of 2020, the STUC represents over 540,000 trade unionists. The STUC is a separate organisation from the English and Welsh ...

, chairing its Youth Advisory Committee, and took a number of full-time positions in UCATT, becoming its Scottish regional secretary in 1991. In 2004, he was elected as the union's general secretary, easily beating Michael Dooley. As general secretary, Ritchie led the group of trade unionists working on the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

construction project, and campaigned against nominal self-employment of building workers and for improved safety on construction sites. He was re-elected in 2009, again beating Dooley, but it later emerged that almost half the union's members were never sent

ballot paper A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16th centu ...

s, and the result was declared void. Ritchie declared his intention to stand in the re-run election, but before it took place, he was suspended over unconnected allegations of expenses fraud. The following year, he resigned from the union.Ex-union official accused of £100,000 expenses false claim
, '' The Herald'', 27 November 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Alan 1951 births Living people Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress Scottish trade unionists Place of birth missing (living people) General secretaries of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians