John Sheldon (trade unionist)
John Denby Sheldon is a British trade unionist and former General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, and its predecessors; NUCPS, PTC and the CSU. Early life Sheldon was educated at West Leeds High School. Career John Sheldon presided over a period of successive public sector trade union mergers during the 1980s and 1990s. John Sheldon was elected General Secretary of the Civil Service Union in 1982, following service as Deputy General Secretary. During this time Sheldon and the CSU were amongst those active in opposing the Thatcher Government ban on trade union membership at GCHQ and the subsequent legal challenge in 1984. Sheldon described the government's £1000 tax compensation for GCHQ workers as "Judas Money". In 1988 he then oversaw the subsequent merger with the Society of Civil and Public Servants to form the National Union of Civil and Public Servants and served as its General Secretary from 1993. When NUCPS merged with the IRSF in 1996 to form the Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union (PTC), Sheldon continued as Joint General Secretary along with the IRSF's Clive Brooke. During this period of service, Sheldon served for six years on the General Council of the TUC, standing