| Biography | John Stephen Monks, Baron Monks (born 5 August 1945, Manchester) is a member of the House of Lords and was the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the UK from 1993 until 2003, when he became the General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
He attended Ducie Technical High School (became Ducie High School then closed in 2003 to become Manchester Academy) next to the University of Manchester on Lloyd Street North in Moss Side, Manchester (three years below John Thaw). He studied Economic History at the University of Nottingham.From 1967 to 1969, he was a management trainee and junior manager with Plessey in Surrey.
He joined the TUC in 1969 and by 1977 was the head of the Organisation and Industrial Relations Department, and the Deputy General Secretary in 1987, leading to his election in 1993 as General Secretary.
He was re-elected as General Secretary in 2007 and completed his mandate in May 2011.
Monks has also sat on numerous other bodies, including Acas from 1979 until 1995. In 2000, he agreed to chair the Co-operative Commission, reporting in 2001 with recommendations for the co-operative movement. He is also chairman of the People's History Museum, Manchester and President of the British Airline Pilots Association. He is a non executive director of Thompsons Solicitors and a Trustee of NOW:Pensions. Additionally, he is a vice - president of Justice for Colombia and of the Smith Institute, and President of the Involvement and Participation Association.
He took his seat in the House of Lords on 11 October 2010, having been created a life peer on 26 July 2010 as Baron Monks, of 'Blackley in the County of Greater Manchester. In August 2014, Monks was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue. |