Gail Cartmail

Gail Cartmail (born 1955) is an Assistant General Secretary (AGS) at the trade union Unite and also a member of the Trades Union Congress' (TUC) Executive Committee and General Council.

Career Cartmail attended Heronswood Secondary Modern School in Welwyn Garden City, having failed her eleven plus exam. She left school with no qualifications, Cartmail began her working life as an apprentice hairdresser. Later, she began working in the publishing industry, and eventually became Mother of the Chapel for the print union, the National Graphical Association, where she gained prominence for a campaign for equal pay for women, and studied at the London College of Printing.

In 1977, Cartmail began to work as a trade union liaison officer for the London Borough of Greenwich, and ten years later became a full-time trade union official for the Health Visitors' Association. She left in 1990 to become a regional officer for the Manufacturing, Science and Finance union, being promoted to national officer before it became part of Amicus, in which she was the national officer for the health sector. In 2016, when McCluskey stood down to contest a new election, Cartmail was chosen as acting general secretary.

Cartmail is a Commissioner at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. In her spare time, she enjoys cold-water swimming.