My friend and former work colleague Mike Kalaher, who has died aged 80, was for many years a full-time organiser and recruiter for the Unison trade union, first in London and then in East Anglia.
Mike was born in Islington in north London, where his earliest memories were of the sounds of doodlebug bombs flying over the capital during the second world war, and of being thrown into a Morrison shelter by his parents or grandparents, along with his dog, Peter.
Mike’s father, Lawrence, was an engineer’s fitter, communist and trade unionist, and his mother, Clara (nee Beckham), was an office supervisor. When he was 11 his father set him on the path to readership of the Guardian, giving him extra pocket money to buy a “decent” newspaper (then the Manchester Guardian).
At Sir William Collins secondary school in Somers Town he loved his school dinners and was a keen member of the debating club, but took little interest in his studies, leaving at 16 to work at the John Dickinson stationery company in Apsley, Hertfordshire. After 18 months he moved to Kodak, becoming a shop steward there for the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians union and staying with the company for eight years. After that he worked for the British Standards Institute, providing technical help to exporters.
In the early 1970s Mike became the youngest alderman in the history of Hemel Hempstead borough council, later becoming deputy leader of the successor council, Dacorum.
In 1970 he achieved his ambition of becoming a full-time trade union official for Nalgo (now Unison), where he was instrumental in creating a union branch for staff who worked at the union itself. After 25 years of organising and recruiting across public sector organisations in the London region, in 1995 he transferred to Unison’s eastern region, where he recruited and organised across the water industry, privatised utilities and NHS trusts. During this time he gained an MSc at Keele University and became a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Poor health forced Mike’s retirement in 2007, but he embraced the change and was elected to the parish council of the village of Langford in Bedfordshire, to where he had moved in 2002. He was chair of its cemetery committee for a time, which came in handy when making arrangements for his demise.
Mike is survived by his wife, Lorraine (nee Rook), whom he married in 2008; two children, Joe and Lizzie, from his first marriage, to Jan (nee Stevens), which ended in divorce; two stepchildren, Victoria and Lawrence, from his second marriage; 13 grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
