My father, Alan Shute, who has died aged 92, was a tenacious and principled trade union negotiator who rose to become assistant general secretary of the National Union of Civil and Public Servants (NUCPS). He was involved in many high-profile negotiations, including representation of some of the sacked GCHQ workers in 1984, when the Thatcher government banned trade union membership for employees.
Originally a customs officer, after several years of voluntary union work Alan was appointed as a full-time negotiator for the Society of Civil Servants trade union in 1969. Around the same time, he was the first member of the society to appear on television – in an episode of The Eamonn Andrews Show discussing purported benefit fraud – and was interviewed by the Guardian soon after about working conditions in DHSS offices.
