SPAIN: The IMF's good friend, Juan Olaskoaga, who was for 15 years the General Secretary of the Federación del Metal de ELA, died on August 8 while practising his hobby of underwater fishing near Sopelana, on the Biscay coast.
Juan was an historical leader and militant in the ELA against the Franco dictatorship and was especially active in the IMF during that period, putting his life at great risk fighting the Spanish fascists.
He was later president of the works council of Michelin-Lasarte, a multinational company which fired him in 1976 after the famous 100-day strike at that company. The same year, he played an important role in the ELA's Third Congress, which was also the beginning of the establishing of the ELA itself in companies and industrial sectors of the region. In the 1980s, as leader of the metal trade union federation, he participated in the process of the industrial reconversion of the La Naval shipyards in Bilbao.
Juan also took an active part in various activities linked to international trade union solidarity, in which the ELA was engaged through the IMF and the European Metalworkers' Federation, and was an EMF vice-president. He organised many bilateral meetings for trade unions of other countries, especially European.
Thousands of trade union colleagues from the ELA, the LAB, UGT, CC.OO and the Labour Relations Council -- on which he represented the ELA -- paid homage to Juan at his funeral on August 10 in his hometown of Zarautz.
Juan Olaskoaga will be greatly missed. The IMF extends its deepest sympathy to all his family and many friends.