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GFTU GENERAL SECRETARY IN THE HAGUE

Posted on Tuesday, June 01, 2010

 The Coordinating Committee for International Staff Unions and Associations of the United Nations System (CCISUA)

Address  to  CCISUA  Congress
The Hague – Thursday 27th  May 2010
 
Chair, Congress,
                         
 It is with a great feeling of pride and humility that I address you on this historic day. Not only, I believe, is this the first time in your history that you have made an international affiliation but it is also the first time in the 111 year history of the General Federation of Trade Unions that we have accepted an international organisation into affiliation.
 
The GFTU has recognised the importance of international solidarity since its formation in1899. The GFTU was founded by the UK Trade Union Congress to develop and hold a strike fund which would benefit and support working people engaged in struggle.   Right from the start the GFTU recognised the importance of international links. At the 1900 GFTU conference Jensen the President of the Danish Federation of Trade Unions spoke and discussed the possible formation of an association of national trade  union centres and as a result Denmark played host to an international trade union conference in 1901. Another conference in Stuttgart in 1902 was followed by a further conference in Dublin in 1903 which was arranged by the GFTU. Here delegates from Britain, Austria, Italy, Demark, Holland, France, Germany and Norway agreed to send annual reports on trade unionism in their countries to an international secretary of the national centres of trade unions.
 
When the  GFTU was established in 1899 the objectives were declared as follows: -
“to uphold the right of combination of labour , to improve in every direction the general economic position and status of the workers by the inauguration of a policy that shall leave to them the power   to determine the economic and social conditions under which they shall work and live, and to secure unity of action among all societies forming the federation”
 
To this day the international dimension of the work of the federation has been maintained. Next month a delegation from the GFTU will visit Canada as guests of the British Columbia General Employees Union. We will also be attending the ITUC conference in Vancouver. Since my election as GFTU General Secretary we have visited and hosted reciprocal visits from trade unionists in Denmark, Zimbabwe, Russia, Argentina, Brazil and Cuba.
 
We affiliate to the International Federation of Workers Education Associations and are represented on the Executive Committee of that organisation. We have participated in a number of projects with colleagues from other countries as part of the European Union Funded Work and Department for International Development Work.
 
We do this because we recognise that we are in an interdependent world with accelerating globalisation. As globalisation accelerates we must harness its benefits for working people and we must protect our members from its worst excesses. I am delighted that our partnership has been established. I am convinced that it will be mutually beneficial. I hope that some of you will be able to attend our conference in Manchester in 2011.
 
Thank you for the invitation to participate in this congress and I will ask Judith Jackson our head of Educational Services to talk about the education and training aspect of our partnership.