Well-known union official on London’s big construction projects dies of suspected heart attack

Construction union Ucatt official Chris Tiff died unexpectedly this week after a suspected heart attack.

Tiff, 53, spent the last 13 years as one of Ucatt’s London regional organisers and was a well known figure on the capital’s high profile schemes, in particular at Canary Wharf where in conjunction with Lewisham College, Canary wharf and UCATT he established a learning centre, initially in a portakabin on the site, that offered computer training to site workers in order to help them gain CSCS cards. 

The centre, established in 2002, also offered evening classes in English to the site’s many migrant workers.

Tiff described the centre as a “model for the industry in bringing employers, unions and colleges together to educate workers at work”.

The centre is now housed in a permanent home at Heron Quays.

Ucatt orgainiser Jerry Swain said: “Chris was the driving force behind eatablishing the learning centre. His death is a loss to his colleagues and Ucatt, but also to the construction industry whose workers he cared deeply for.”

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