Mike Kalaher Obituary | Unison

My friend and former work colleague Mike Callagher, who has died aged 80, was a full-time organizer and recruiter for Unison for many years, first at London and then in East Anglia.

Mike was born in Islington, north London, where his earliest memories were of the sound of bombing raids flying over the capital during the Second World War, and being dropped off by his parents or grandparents at Morrison Shelter with their dog Peter.

Mike’s father, Lawrence, was an assembly engineer, communist and trade unionist, while his mother, Clara (née Beckham), was an office manager. When he was 11, his father set him on the path to reading the Guardian, giving him extra pocket money to buy a “decent” newspaper (then the Manchester Guardian).

At Sir William Collins High School in Somerstown, he enjoyed school lunches and was a keen member of the debating club, but had little interest in studies, leaving at 16 to work for John Dickinson’s stationery company in Apsley, Hertfordshire. After 18 months, he moved to Kodak, becoming a shop steward for the Association of Motion Picture, Television and Allied Technicians union and remaining with the company for eight years. After that, he worked for the British Standards Institution, providing technical assistance to exporters.

In the early 1970s, Mike became the youngest ever chairman of Hemel Hempstead Borough Council, later becoming deputy leader of the successor council, Dacorum.

In 1970, he realized his ambitions and became a full-time union official at Nalgo (now Unison), where he was instrumental in setting up a trade union branch for employees who worked in the union itself. After 25 years organizing and recruiting for community organizations in the London region, he moved to Unison’s eastern region in 1995, where he recruited and organized across water, privatized utilities and NHS trusts. During this time he completed an MSc at Keele University and became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Ill health forced Mike to retire in 2007, but he embraced change and was elected to the parish council of Langford in Bedfordshire, where he moved in 2002. He was for some time chairman of the cemetery committee, which came in handy in preparing for his death.

Mike is survived by his wife Lorraine (née Rook), whom he married in 2008; two children, Joe and Lizzie, from her first marriage to Jan (née Stevens), which ended in divorce; two stepsons, Victoria and Lawrence, from his second marriage; 13 grandchildren; and a great-grandson.