General Secretary
Jonathan Baume has been General Secretary since 1997 and was previously Assistant General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary. The previous General Secretary (1989–96) was Elizabeth Symons and the one before her was John Ward (1980–88). The first full time General Secretary was Norman Ellis who was appointed in 1974.
Jonathan Baume has announced he will be retiring in late 2012 and Dave Penman, formerly Deputy General Secretary, was elected unopposed to succeed him and took up office as Joint General Secretary from July 2012.
In 1996, then Labour Party leader Tony Blair was criticised after he proposed outgoing FDA General Secretary Liz Symons for a peerage.
At the 2006 TUC Conference, Jonathan Baume was heckled when he spoke against support for the Trade Union Freedom Bill.
Read more about this topic: FDA (trade Union)
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