Key interests and
achievements
Mick Antoniw is a founder
member of the Bevan Foundation and a former trustee of the Welsh Refugee
Council. He is Vice President of the Brynsadler Community Trust in Pontyclun
and a Trustee of Beddau-based youth counselling charity Eye-to-eye. He is also
a member of Welsh Labour Grassroots, the Co-operative Party, GMB and the
Musicians Union.
In his constituency, Mick’s
focus is on ensuring fairness and social justice for working people and
improving infrastructure, particularly in respect of transport. He engages
widely across his constituency and has been pleased to help many individuals and
groups make improvements in their local area.
Personal history
Mick was brought up in Reading
and moved to Wales to study law at Cardiff University in 1973. He loves Wales
and it’s where he met his wife Elaine, so he’s lived here ever since. Mick’s
father was a refugee from Ukraine after the war and he taught Mick Ukrainian,
which he speaks fluently. Mick takes Welsh lessons whenever he can, but is
still some way from being fluent in three languages!
Professional background
Before being elected as an
Assembly Member in 201I, Mick was a partner at Trade Union solicitors
Thompsons, where he regularly represented people in Pontypridd and across
Rhondda Cynon Taf. His casework took him to the collieries at Nantgarw and Cwm,
South Wales Forgemasters and Brown Lenox among others and, as a result, he has
lived through the many changes in the constituency over the years.
After qualifying as a solicitor
in 1980, Mick specialised in spinal and head injuries and corporate
manslaughter. He is a visiting fellow of the University of South Wales in
Treforest and has lectured widely across Wales, the UK and internationally in
the field of health and safety and law reform.
Political history
Mick has served the people of
Pontypridd and Taff Ely as their Assembly Member since 2011, being re-elected
in 2016.
Mick served as Counsel General
for Wales from June 2016 to November 2017.
During the Fourth Assembly
(2011 – 2016), Mick sat on the Assembly’s Enterprise and Business Committee and
the Environment and Sustainability Committee; and was Chair of the Standards of
Conduct Committee. Mick continues to participate in a number of Cross-Party
groups.
From 2012 to 2015, Mick
represented the Welsh Government on the European Union Committee of the Regions
and was re-appointed to the role in 2017.
From 1977 to 1979, Mick was
President of the National Union of Students (Wales) and shortly after, from
1981 to 1989, he was a member of South Glamorgan County Council.
