Robert is 76 years of age and lives in Port Glasgow. He has been a trade union member for an unbroken 57 years. He served his apprenticeship as a marine plumber at Scott's Shipyard Greenock from 1966 to 1970.  
He has worked in John Browns Shipyard Clydebank, Cammell Lairds Shipyard Birkenhead and Ferguson's Shipyard Port Glasgow from 1970 to 1975. From 1975 to 1992 he worked on petrochemical construction sites in Scotland, Wales, England, Holland and Germany - onshore and offshore. During this period he was the Union Branch President & Treasurer, shop steward, and shop stewards' convener. From
1992 to 1999 he was the Trade Union Officer responsible for the Offshore Industry and the Mechanical Construction Industry for the EETPU & AEEU as well as Secretary of the Inter Union Offshore Oil Committee, sub group of the TUC and was based in Aberdeen from 1992 to 1999. 
From 1999 to his retirement in 2009 he was Trade Union Officer Amicus & Unite, responsible for the Scottish Mechanical Construction Industry that included Grangemouth, Methil, Burntisland, Mossmoran and Longannet.