Gary Smith | |
|---|---|
 Gary Smith addresses GMB Congress in June 2021, following his election as General Secretary. | |
| General Secretary of GMB | |
| In office June 2021 –Present | |
Gary Smith (born 1965) is a Scottish trade union leader.
Born in Edinburgh, [1] Smith completed an apprenticeship as a gas fitter, joining the GMB at the age of 16. He became a shop steward and when he was 26 the union paid for him to study at Ruskin College, which he followed with a master's degree in industrial relations from Warwick University. [2] [3]
After completing his education, Smith returned to working in the gas industry, and to trade union activism. He began working full-time for the union, as Recruitment Officer, then as a Senior Organiser, National Officer, and then as National Secretary for Commercial Services. In 2015, he became the union's Scotland Secretary. [2] In this role, he was frequently critical of the Scottish National Party government. [4] A supporter of Keir Starmer's leadership of the Labour Party, he opposed Richard Leonard's efforts to remain leader of Scottish Labour, despite Leonard being a member of the GMB. [3]
In 2021, Smith was elected as General Secretary of the union, defeating Rehana Azam and Giovanna Holt. As General Secretary, he pledged to implement the recommendations of a report by Karon Monaghan QC, which argued that the union had problems with "bullying, misogyny, cronyism and sexual harassment". [3]
Smith urged the Labour Party to back fracking in September 2022, telling them not to bow to the "bourgeois environmental lobby". [5] In August 2023, Smith criticised the expansion of the London Ultra-Low Emissions Zone and called for the Labour Party to rethink its plans to ban new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. [6]
In June 2024 the New Statesman named Smith 46th in The Left Power List 2024, the magazine's "guide to the 50 most influential people in progressive politics". [7]