13) Tony Devlin, regional officer, Unite
“We are lucky to have an exceptional officer in Tony Devlin to work with,” retired industry stalwart Peter Larner told Motortransport.co.uk earlier this year in reference to the Unite officer’s skill in negotiating between transport bosses and workers.
Indeed, Devlin, along with fellow regional and national union officers, have successfully represented the interests of 75,000 road transport workers during 2013 – in a sector Unite says is “rife with TUPE transfers” - ensuring employers are held accountable for decisions over pay, working conditions, redundancies and health and safety.
Rightly or wrongly, the power of the union to bring multi-million pound operations to a temporary standstill cannot be disputed - and the likes of DHL, UPS and Kuehne + Nagel, to name but a few, have all seen the wrath of Unite members’ industrial action during 2013.
