IV Congress of European Transport Workers' Federation
From 29th to 30th May 2013 IV Congress of European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) was held. This time delegates met in Berlin. ETF it is pan-European organisation gathering trade unions organisations from the transport and fisheries sectors. More than 2,5 million employees are members of 225 trade unions from 41 European countries. Only in the maritime transport ETF organising 77 seafarers unions spread in 33 European countries, among which all EU countries (c.a. 272,000 seafarers).
At the Congress the Polish transport sector was represented by: Trade Union Workers of PKP Federation, Seamen's & Fishermen's Trade Union Federation, National Maritime Section NSZZ "Solidarnosc", National Section of Port Workers NSZZ "Solidarnosc" and Polish Seafarer's Union. Two our delegates - Henryk Piatkowski and Dariusz Konkol - have participated at this event. As an observer Kamil Butler also took part. Just before the Congress Kamil was a participant at the meeting of the ETF Youth Committee which is starting its activity.
Delegates to the Congress have assessed ETF activities connected with previous four-year term, have elected the governing bodies (the President, the General Secretary and the Executive Committee) and have adopted financial report and ETF Work Programme for further four years. Besides usual procedures, they have the opportunity to participate in two interesting thematic panels.
The two panels concerned the "Transport policy for the people" and "Trade unions transports for social progress". The panel discussion was reflected in the resolutions adopted by the Congress. We will keep you informed on these topics, especially in matters concerning our maritime section.
Now, a few words about the results of the election. Lars Lindgren was re-elected as the President of the ETF and Eduardo Chagas was also re-elected as the General Secretary. Jacek Cegielski from National Maritime Section NSZZ "Solidarnosc" was elected as Member of the Executive Committee. He is also the Vice-Chairman of ETF Maritime Section. In the sections of the ETF, Maarten Gutt from the Trade Union Workers of PKP Federation was elected as Vice-Chairman of ETF Railway Section.
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