Michael Pollek

Born: 24th February 1954

Reading, UK

Date of interview: 13th July 2006

Ok. And what about your experiences while you were still working within the trade union itself, when you were still employed?

It was just a standard, nothing at all to do with my background as a Ukrainian, it was just me being an ordinary guy working in an ordinary environment defending people from a lay position, disciplinaries that sort of thing. Of course now, as a union official, I play a much bigger role in that and part of my duties now, my Ukrainian background is helping 'cos its not just about Ukrainians, I'm able to help Polish people, a lot because Polish and Ukrainian's very similar, the language, so we can communicate. So I'm helping Poles to try and integrate and actually helping them not become the new abused.