UNISON Derby City Branch

We would just like to pay tribute to Sue Salzedo who was a a great support and friend to Julie Walker our Branch Treasurer and a very good friend of our branch. Rosie Bartram UNISON Area Organiser – Case Support Unit and Regional Women’s Network Secretary sums up below in her words how much sue was respected in UNISON for everything she did for the union and its members.

For those interested in attending Sue’s funeral please contact Derby City Branch and we will share these with you.

Hi all

I am writing this with a heavy heart as we recently lost a much loved and respected member of the UNISON family. Sue Salzedo sadly passed away in December 2021 at the age of 75. She was a member of Leicestershire County Branch but was also active in several of our self-organised groups (SOGs) as well as Regional and National forums. I thought it would be fitting to honour her many years of activism and her dedication to supporting members.

Sue, a Social Worker, started her UNISON path as a steward for NALGO. We know that she was active in the 1990s and I suspect that she was active before this time too. In 1991 she was the Women’s Officer within the branch. As such she attended regular meetings and attended Women’s Conference on numerous occasions. She was also active in the LGBT+ SOG at this time. She was a branch delegate, regional delegate and also got involved nationally too. She was a leading light in both SOGs and continued to be until the end of 2021.

Sue was the branch chair at Leicestershire from 2003 to 2006. She retired in 2006 but still continued to be a very active part of both the branch and regionally. She became joint retired members secretary upon retiring, sharing the role with Shirley Ball and then Richard Lancaster. In 2016 she took on this role solely and held it until now. She was also a member of the International Committee, Regional Council and the Equalities Committee.

She was an integral part of the Regional Women’s Network and will be sorely missed by us all. Sue was interviewed for an article in Out In UNISON magazine back in 2008. It gives a great insight into Sue, and I wanted to share my favourite quote from it with you. When asked what advice she would give others when approaching retirement she said, “don’t wait; don’t worry about spending money to do things that you really want to do, now is the only time that you have. The main thing is to enjoy yourself.” I think this advice applies to us all. 

Thank you Sue.

Rosie Bartram

UNISON Area Organiser – Case Support Unit

Regional Women’s Network Secretary