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23 August, 2005ICEM News Release No. 65/1999
The 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) this afternoon elected a new leadership. The ICEM's World Congress is currently in session in Durban, South Africa.
Main election results:
President:
John Maitland (Australia)
Vice-Presidents (by alphabetical order of surname):
Juraj Blahak (Slovak Republic)
Sune Ekbage (Sweden)
Luis Gonzaga (Brazil)
Jerry Jones (USA)
Verner Klemmensen (Denmark)
Daisaku Kochiyama (Japan)
Paul Lootens (Belgium)
James Motlatsi (South Africa)
Rosa Novoa (Chile)
Margaret Prosser (UK)
Ben Roodhuizen (Netherlands)
Antonio Scalfaro (Italy)
Hubertus Schmoldt (Germany)
N. Tsumaki (Japan)
Robert Wages (USA)
Alexander Yurkin (Ukraine)
General Secretary:
Fred Higgs
Immediately before the elections, delegates marched through the streets of Durban in a demonstration of global trade union solidarity.
Red-and-black ICEM banners and caps predominated throughout the crowd, but union banners from all continents were also on prominent display. The confident, good-humoured demonstration paused in front of Durban's city hall, where the mayor addressed the marchers from the steps.
Some 800 trade unionists from all parts of the world took part in the march, accompanied by plenty of singing and dancing. It was a powerful display of the ICEM's central aims - to UNITE AND ORGANISE.
Incoming ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, elected unanimously, is a British trade unionist who has worked his way up from the shopfloor, through national trade union posts, to his new international position. He told delegates that he saw his election as a sign that "you want our International to become a real international trade union."
Higgs paid tribute to outgoing General Secretary Vic Thorpe, who had not stood for re-election.
New ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs:
"You want the ICEM to become a real international trade union."
Vic Thorpe has, Higgs said, been "a giant in pursuing, on behalf of working people, their interests in the international arena."
