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23 November, 2007
Delegates to the 4th World Congress of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Union (ICEM) elected Senzeni Zokwana, President, and Manfred Warda, General Secretary, for four-year terms.
Some 840 trade union leaders from 75 countries are attending the Bangkok, Thailand, Congress, which concludes tomorrow with a crucial motion on the occupation of Iraq, the country’s the oil industry, and support for emerging trade unions. Other business tomorrow includes action on Burma, Thailand and closer co-operation with other Global Union Federations.
Zokwana serves as President of the 300,000-member National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa, and was first elected by the ICEM’s Presidium in a special election in October 2005. He is a 24-year members of the NUM and got his start in the labour movement as a shop steward in a gold mine in South Africa’s Free State.
Manfred Warda and Senzeni Zokwana
Zokwana, NUM President since 2000, is a forceful advocate of bringing modern safety techniques to the developing world’s mining industry. He is also an outspoken campaigner for ending the marginalisation of Africa by using the continent’s resources to end poverty and to create opportunities for African people.
Warda has been Acting General Secretary of the 20-million-member Global Union Federation since January 1 of this year. He is a 44-year member of Germany’s Industrial of Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers (IGBCE) and its predecessor, the Industrial Mining and Energy Union (IGBE).
He began his trade union career with IGBE in 1971, and after serving as an assistant and then Head of the President's Office, he became Head of IGBE's International Department from 1990 to 1997. Following the 1997 merger that created IGBCE, he continued as Head of the IGBCE’s International Department. He began working in the industrial sector in 1963 in his home city of Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia.
Today’s ICEM Congress also elected its first Vice President from the Middle East/North Africa Region. Elected was Mohamed el-Sayed Morsi of Egypt’s Public Syndicate of Public Utilities. ICEM delegates also changed the federation’s statutes to permit a head office move from Brussels, Belgium, to Geneva, Switzerland. That move is to occur in the first half of 2008.
Tomorrow’s motion on Iraq calls for the “swiftest possible withdrawal of coalition troops,” and states that “the oil and gas resources of the country remain the property of all the people of Iraq.” The motion commits ICEM to intensify its work with the trade unions of Iraq.