Born on 6 April 1945 in Hammersmith, London[1] to Elizabeth Bickerstaffe, from South Yorkshire, who had been finishing her nursing training at Whipps Cross hospital in the heavily bombed East End during the Blitz.

[citation needed] Bickerstaffe became an organiser for the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) in 1966 in Yorkshire, rising through the ranks to be divisional officer of the northern division.

During the 1978–79 Winter of Discontent he was particularly known for his militancy on behalf of government workers; some other trade unionists blamed him for Margaret Thatcher's subsequent election.

Bickerstaffe was a popular and highly visible trade union leader, calling for better rights and fairer treatment for staff working in public services and those transferred to the private sector through national and local privatisations.

At the 2000 Labour Party Conference he moved the successful though controversial resolution to ensure pensions are uprated in line with earnings or prices, whichever is higher.

[3] He was involved in fighting discrimination of all kinds and was a patron of the Dalit Solidarity Network, an organisation in London (UK) for opposition to the oppression of India's caste system.