About John Park

John Park MSP is a member of the Labour Party and was first elected as a regional list member for Mid Scotland and Fife on May 3, 2007.

During this parliament, John was the Shadow Cabinet Secretary without Portfolio (Elections & Campaigns), a post he was promoted to in October 2009 having been made Shadow Minister for Economy and Skills in September 2007. Since being re-elected as a list MSP in May 2011 he was the Labour parliamentary group's Chief Whip until December 2011. John is now a member of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee.

John has been an active trade unionist and a member of Unite the Union since he started working in 1989 and a Labour Party member for the majority of his working life. Coming from a family with roots in the coalfields of Fife and the defence industry, he was brought up to recognise the privilege and responsibility of being an elected representative.

After leaving school at 15, John undertook an electrical fitter apprenticeship at Rosyth Dockyard, becoming active in the trade union led campaign to win the Trident refit contract and elected a shop steward shortly afterwards. He was subsequently elected as secretary of the joint trade union negotiating committee in 1999.

In 2001 he took up a full time position with the Amalgamated Engineering Electrical Union (AEEU) in research and communications at their Head Office in London. When the Union merged with MSF to form Amicus (now Unite) John was appointed a National Campaigns Officer working on a wide range of diverse industrial campaigns across the UK before returning to Scotland in 2003 to work in the private sector as Head of Employee Relations with Babcock Naval Services.

Prior to his election to the Scottish Parliament he was an Assistant Secretary at the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) with responsibility for the organisation’s media and political strategy.