Richard Pickering (22 September 1942 – 10 October 1996) was a British trade union leader.
Born in Manchester on 22 September 1942, Pickering became active in the local Labour Party and in the National Union of General and Municipal Workers.
[3] In 1987, Pickering resigned as chair of the union, by then known as the GMB, in protest at increases in membership fees and reductions in shop stewards' commission for collecting these dues.
This post, which was subsequently renamed "president" of the union, brought him prominence in the trade union movement; he chaired a TUC investigation into repetitive strain injury, and he also represented the TUC to the European Economic and Social Committee.
He died of a heart attack in 1996, shortly before he was due to become President of the TUC.