A UNION activist who has worked as a postman, a milkman, a driver and council employee has been named regional secretary of the TUC in Yorkshire.

Bill Adams succeeds Paul Jagger, who retired in October after many years in the role.

Preston-born Mr Adams has worked for the TUC for the past five years, most recently as education officer covering northern England.

Before that, he worked as a lecturer in law and undertook trade union studies at colleges in Leeds, Preston and Middlesex.

He graduated in law in 1993 as a mature student from the University of Central Lancashire.

Mr Adams has been a union representative throughout his career.

He said the union movement had a big agenda to tackle - with issues such as pay and conditions, pensions and pressures on people to work longer hours.

He said union membership in the region was growing in sectors such as retailing and railways.

But he said: "We are still losing manufacturing jobs and there are emerging industries with no history of trade union membership.

"There is a big job to be done in rebuilding union membership and one of my priorities will be educating people about its benefits."