26 November, 2011
By acclamation, Senzeni Zokwana was re-elected President and Manfred Warda re-elected General Secretary of the 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Union (ICEM) at the Global Union Federation’s 5th Statutory Congress in Buenos Aires on 25 November.
Some 800 delegates from over 200 national trade unions are attending the ICEM’s Congress, which closes today with an address by Argentina Labour and Social Security Minister Dr. Carlos Tomada. Delegates also elected, by region, a 59-member governing Executive Committee that includes 20 Vice Presidents.
The Congress postponed electing representations from the Middle East / North Africa Region due to political unrest in several countries, with statutory representation from the MENA region expected to come at the regional conference in March 2012. (The complete listing of ICEM Executive / Presidium members can be found here.)
Newly re-elected ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, President Senzeni Zokwana
Day two of the Congress on 25 November also saw delegates adopt a forward-looking Action Plan that is meant to continue the trade union activism of the ICEM as it enters integration next year with two other GUFs – the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF). The ICEM Congress today will pass a definitive resolution to dissolve the ICEM in June 2012, followed by a founding Congress of a new industrial trade union organization. That will occur from 18-20 June in Copenhagen.
Zokwana, the President of the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa, begins his second full term at the helm of the ICEM. First elected in a special election in October 2005, he began his trade union activism in 1980 in apartheid-era South Africa at the President Steyn gold mine in the Free State.
He at first was a shift overseer on safety matters and in 1995 he joined the NUM staff as a Safety Officer, after proving himself a forceful advocate of modern mine safety techniques. In 2000, he was elected President of the 300,000-member NUM and besides his leading global role today on mine safety matters, he is an outspoken anti-poverty campaigner throughout Africa.
Warda has served as General Secretary of ICEM since 1 January 2007, and began his trade union career in 1971 with Germany’s Mineworkers' Union in his home city of Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia. After serving as assistant and then Head of the President’s Office, he was head of the International Department of the country’s Industrial Mining and Energy Union (IGBE) from 1991-1997. Following the merger of IGBE and IG Chemie in 1997, he was named head of the International Department of IGBCE.
The Congress concludes today with debate on resolutions regarding furthering the ICEM’s work in the MENA region, particularly with Iraqi and Palestinian unions; on an active response to the financial crisis and support for a Financial Transaction Tax; labour rights in Colombia; repressive postures of governments in Hungary and other European countries; European-based companies hampering trade union and human rights in Turkey; electric energy; the Trans-Pacific trade partnership agreement; and on support to the striking PT Freeport Indonesia Workers’ Union in Papua Province in their courageous struggle against the multination Freeport-McMoRan.