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| Cotu Secretary-General Francis Atwoli gives his acceptance speech after he was re-elected as the vice-president of the ITUC in Denmark on December 7, 2018. PHOTO | COURTESY |
Trade unions boss Francis Atwoli has been re-elected as the vice-president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in Denmark.
Mr Atwoli was re-elected on Friday during the 4th ITUC congress currently taking place in Copenhagen.
SOLDIER
The unionist’s name was proposed at a gathering of more than 3,000 delegates, by his colleagues in countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia.
He was elected as a titular member to the General Council of the ITUC to represent the East African region.
The delegates unanimously approved the decision, granting him another four-year term in the leadership of the ITUC, an organisation he is now serving as VP for the third term uninterrupted.
“The position you have just bestowed on me isn’t an easy one. You are sending me to war; to fight for working men and women wherever they are in the world,” he said in his acceptance speech.
“I am only your soldier whose actions will always come from you, the commanders, and I will never let you down. I will stand for your interests and put up my life for you always.”
Mr Atwoli is the Secretary-General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions, the VP of the International Labour Organization and the president of the Organization of African Trade Union Unity, which has its headquarters in Accra, Ghana.
LARGEST UNION
The ITUC remains the largest trade union organisation in the world, with a membership of at least 207,000,000 workers.
It is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
The congress began on December 2, with an opening by Denmark Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
Sharan Burrow from Australia won the position of General Secretary after garnering 54,783,316 votes, beating her main challenger Sussana Camusso from Italy, who got 50,196,465 votes.