Douglas Nicholls (born 1956) is a

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trade union leader and writer. Nicholls was a part-time

youth worker A Youth worker is a person that works with young people to facilitate their personal, social and educational development through informal education, care (e.g. preventive) or leisure approaches. All types of educative approaches are not ethical for ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1975, when he joined the

Community and Youth Workers' Union The Community and Youth Workers Union (CYWU) was a British trade union created in 1938 by ten female voluntary sector workers. It is now a section of Unite the Union. Its members were mainly made up of youth workers, workers in youth theatre, c ...

(CYWU). In 1982, he moved to

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

to work full-time in the field, and in 1987 he was elected as general secretary of the . He was Secretary of the Coventry Trade Union Council 1984-1994 and the Secretary of the Coventry Miners' Support Committee during the great strike 1984/85. In 2007, Nicholls took the into a merger with the

Transport and General Workers Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...

(TGWU); a few months later, the TGWU became part of

Unite the Union Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union which was formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). Unite is the second largest trade union in the UK (after ...

, and Nicholls served as a national secretary of Unite until 2011. Nicholls was elected to the Executive of the General Federation of Trade Unions in 1995 and served as its President from 2007 until 2009. He was elected as the Federation's General Secretary in 2012. He became Chair of the national Chooseyouth campaign in 2011. This is an organisation composed of most youth service related organisations and young people's groups that campaigns for a statutory Youth Service. In 2015, Nicholls became the first chair of Trade Unionists Against the European Union. In 2021 he was elected as the first Chair of Rebuild Britain. www.rebuildbritain.org.uk.

Selected book publications

*The Dance of Death, with illustrations by Tim Holman. Quatrain poems. 1979. *Speaking Tools, Poems 1975-2005. *Health and Safety in Youth and Community Work. *Managing Violence and Aggression in Youth and Community Work. * * *Lugalbanda, Lover of the Seed. Version with notes of a Sumerian poem. Manifesto Press. *Editor: Workers' PlayTime, seven scripts from seven struggles. Selected plays about key moments in trade union history with an introduction. *Advisor: For the Many Not the Few, A History of Britain Shaped by the People. *Link contributor: Trade Union Education, Transforming the World.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholls, Doug 1956 births Living people General Secretaries of the General Federation of Trade Unions (UK) Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress Trade unionists from Oxfordshire People from Oxford Presidents of the General Federation of Trade Unions (UK)