Labor & Employment Law

Sharan Burrow Becomes First Woman to Lead ITUC

By James Parks

Guy Ryder and Sharan Burrow at the G-20 labor summit at AFL-CIO headquarters in April.

Delegates to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Congress in Vancouver late last week made history by electing Sharan Burrow as general secretary. She becomes the first woman to lead the world?s largest trade union federation.

Burrow succeeds Guy Ryder, who has accepted the post of deputy general secretary of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Since 2000, Burrow has served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), a post she will now give up. She was elected president of ITUC in 2004, becoming the first woman to hold that post. Michael Sommer of Germany will succeed her as ITUC president.

In her acceptance speech, Burrow asserted the need for all workers to have a voice.   

We all have special responsibilities for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in the workforce, many of them young workers or women….We must begin by building stronger and truly inclusive trade unions that can respond to the unfulfilled needs of a massive and growing number of workers in a range  of different circumstances who need representation.

The global economic crisis poses a major challenge for the world?s workers, Burrow said.

Although we have seen some exceptional results in a small number of countries, including Brazil, Argentina, China and Australia, the recovery in jobs has not been universal. Global unemployment and underemployment continued to rise throughout 2009 and during the first half of this year.

Burrow pledged to fight the spread of corporate greed, saying it has ?no place in global justice.?

Oppression of workers and their unions has no place in national or global governance. Indeed, the right to decent work is a fundamental human right and freedom of association, organizing and collective bargaining are the rights that underpin and tools to drive a fairer globalization.

The ITUC has 312 affiliated member organizations in 156 countries and territories, with a total membership of 176 million workers.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 29, 2010 (boomark / email).