Len McCluskey will continue to be at the heart of employment relations, and politics, after being re-elected for another five years as general secretary of Unite.
The 66-year-old brought forward the union poll by a year, with expectations it would leave him in the top job until the general election, which had been expected to be held in 2020.
As a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, the view was that he wanted to remain in office to help the Labour leader in the next few years.
But the general election is now being held in June, and his support for Mr Corbyn became one of the central themes of attack from his main rival Gerard Coyne.
Mr McCluskey is unapologetic over his backing for Mr Corbyn, whose policies are in tune with those of Unite’s.
The Unite leader has been a lifelong trade unionist and member of the Labour Party.
Born in Liverpool, Mr McCluskey left school to work on the Merseyside docks, becoming a shop steward for the Transport and General Workers’ Union at the age of 19.
He served as a national officer of the TGWU from 1990 and in 2007 before being appointed assistant general secretary for industrial strategy of the newly created Unite, founded through a merger of the TGWU and Amicus.
His profile increased in 2010 during a British Airways cabin crew strike, and he has been closely involved in many disputes, regularly joining picket lines and attacking “bad bosses.”
One of Unite’s high profile campaigns this year has been to expose working conditions at retail giant Sports Direct, which Mr McCluskey has pledged to continue.
As he launched his re-election campaign last year, he said his members needed someone who was experienced and “fearless”, to tackle continuing attacks on jobs, pay and conditions.
“I still have the same drive and passion to do the job I started, to create a powerful union that will always stand shoulder to shoulder with its members, to win decent pay and conditions,“ he said.
Under Mr McCluskey’s leadership, Unite has built up a £35 million strike fund, the biggest of its kind in Europe, which Mr McCluskey believes sends a strong message to employers, as well as assuring members they would not be “starved back” to work during a dispute.
Mr McCluskey has made it clear that Unite’s support for Mr Corbyn was a decision taken by the union’s executive and the members, not him personally.
“We want to work for a Labour government, to reverse austerity and start to re-invest in manufacturing and our communities.
“I will be doing all I can to get Labour re-elected, and there is no doubt that Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell (shadow chancellor) have put forward policies closely aligned to ours.”
Mr McCluskey will now return to lead Unite in a number of disputes which have led to strikes at car giant BMW, Japanese electronics giant Fujitsu and among British Airways cabin crew.
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