Protest for an Affordable Railway under Public Ownership - Waterloo

John Michael Whelan (born 1960) is the General Secretary of the British trade union

ASLEF The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) is a British trade union representing train drivers. It is part of the International Transport Workers' Federation and the European Transport Workers' Federation. At the end of ...

. He is the 18th General Secretary of ASLEF.

Early life

Whelan was born in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

to Irish parents and grew up in

North West London The NW (North Western) postcode area, also known as the London NW postcode area, is a group of 13 postcode districts covering around 13,895 live postcodes within part of northwest London, England. It is the successor of the NW sector, originally ...

. His mother worked in a sweet shop at

Euston station Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...

and his father was a bricklayer. Whelan credited his father with politicising him, although both his parents had left-wing views: his father was a member of the Socialist Workers Party whilst he described his mother's beliefs as "

hard Hard may refer to: * Hardness, resistance of physical materials to deformation or fracture * Hard water, water with high mineral content Arts and entertainment * ''Hard'' (TV series), a French TV series * Hard (band), a Hungarian hard rock super ...

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

". He passed his

eleven-plus The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic ...

and attended

London Oratory School The London Oratory School, also known as "The Oratory" or "The London Oratory" to distinguish it from other schools, is a Catholic Church, Catholic Secondary school#United Kingdom, secondary school for boys aged 7–18 and girls aged 16–18 in W ...

: he planned to attend university after leaving school, however he entered employment instead after his father suffered injuries from a fall from some scaffolding and was unable to continue working.

Career

He began working in the rail industry in 1984, becoming a train driver. Previously he had been a bank clerk.

ASLEF

Whelan was elected General Secretary of ASLEF on 11 October 2011, when he received 3683 votes compared to 3458 for Simon Weller. Previously he had been Midlands District Organiser (ASLEF District 6) for the union. In the first ballot on 19 September 2011 he received 3,284 votes, against 3,115 for Simon Weller. He became General Secretary on 5 December 2011. He is also Editor of ''Aslef Journal'' (a nominal position for the General Secretary), published by TU ink.

Personal life

Whelan is a supporter of

Chelsea football club Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, they play their home games at Stamford Bridge. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football. The ...

. He is married to Lorraine Phelan MBE, the Chief Biomedical Scientist for special haematology at

St Mary's Hospital, London St Mary's Hospital is an NHS hospital in Paddington, in the City of Westminster, London, founded in 1845. Since the UK's first academic health science centre was created in 2008, it has been operated by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, wh ...

. They live at a house in

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

and have two boys including a son born in 1995.

References

External links

Mick's Column at ASLEF

Twitter

News items

London Midland in March 2011

Video clips

Justice for Colombia in September 2012
(introduced by

Billy Hayes Billy or Bill Hayes may refer to: In entertainment * Bill Hayes (actor) (born 1925), American actor and singer * Bill Hayes (television producer), executive producer of ''Jon & Kate + 8'' * Billy Hayes (musician) (born 1985), drummer in Wavves and ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Whelan, Mick 1960 births General secretaries of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen People from Wembley British train drivers Living people People educated at London Oratory School People from Paddington English people of Irish descent