Caithness visit for STUC general secretary Roz Foyer
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A LEADING trade union official is to visit Caithness next week. Roz Foyer, the general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), will be making her first trip to the far north since taking up the post three years ago.
She will be travelling up to the county on Wednesday and will have a meeting with various local organisations and groups at the Pentland Hotel in Thurso in the evening.
On Thursday, she will visit Dounreay, Scrabster harbour and the Engineering, Technology and Energy Centre (ETEC) at the UHI North Highland College in Thurso.
In the afternoon she will be taken to the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm Ltd's operations and maintenance base at Wick as well as the harbour area before heading south again.
The visit came about after Davie Alexander, the chairman of the Thurso and Wick Trade Union Council and secretary, John Deighan invited her to Caithness while they were attending last year's STUC Conference in Aberdeen.
Mr Alexander said: "We want her to get a feel for the area and see what is going on and the issues affecting people here. It will be a fact-finding mission and her first visit to Caithness since becoming the general secretary of the STUC."
Ms Foyer was born in November 1972 and grew up in Glasgow. After leaving school, she worked for the Benefits Agency, where she led a successful campaign against privatisation.
She was later an organiser in the print workers union, a National Officer with the Transport and General Workers Union, and after it became part of Unite, she worked in its national organising department. She was also STUC assistant secretary.
Ms Foyer served on the general council of the STUC for many years, including a term as chair of its youth committee. In 2020, she was appointed as general secretary of the STUC and became the first woman to hold the post.
She replaced Grahame Smith, who retired after 14 years in the role.
