Derek Fudge is the National Director of Policy Development with the 370,000-member National Union of Public and General Employees. He has worked for NUPGE for 27 years. He is a graduate of Harvard University's Trade Union Program and has a Masters degree in Social Policy and Administration from Carleton University and a Bachelor of Social Work degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador. Derek's areas of expertise are in the fields of labour law, pensions, human rights and international solidarity. He is the author of Collective Bargaining in Canada: Human Right or Canadian Illusion? published in August 2006 and Future Considerations: A Pension Manual for Union Activists published in November 2007. Derek has also had several research papers and articles published in labour and social policy journals. He has been a guest speaker at a number of national and international conferences. In November 2000, Derek was elected as the first-ever Canadian Labour Congress Vice-President (Persons with Disabilities) and served as a member of the CLC Executive Council for four years.

He has been active in the NDP for over 30 years and is a member of the NDP Federal Council. He was born and raised in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador where his family has had long history of activism in the province's labour movement. His father, the late Baxter Fudge, is a member of the Canadian Labour Hall o.