School worker from Belfast ​Catherine McKenna elected as president of the UK's biggest union

​Catherine McKenna, who also helps with special needs transport, has been elected as president of Unison's roughly 1.3m members for the next year.

She was elected to a seat on the union’s roughly 60-strong National Executive Council by members, and then the members of the executive council elected her its president.

She was elected to the post last Friday at Unison’s national conference in Liverpool.

Catherine is the third woman from Unison NI to be elected to the position, and is the first education worker – something the union said reflects “the growing strength of education workers here”.

She has been a Unison member for 18 years and belongs to the Belfast education branch, where she has previously been the branch secretary and is now chair.

Catherine has served on the National Executive Council, the union’s governing body, for the past four years, and has just been re-elected to the seat reserved for low-paid workers in Northern Ireland.

Catherine said: “I’m looking forward to winning for public sector workers everywhere, especially the lowest-paid. Coming from west Belfast and working in a low-paid role, I know what it means to feel unseen, unheard, and undervalued...

“I come from the same workplaces, the same struggles, and I carry that with me in every decision. I’m ready to give it my all, because our strength lies in how we listen, how we care, and how we stand together.”

The union said her interests include international solidarity and women’s issues.