Inaugural Congress
The founding congress of the ITUC was held on 1-3 November 2006 in Vienna, Austria.
The first day of the congress saw the formal creation of the ITUC followed by an address by Juan Somavia, the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Day two included Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) responding to panel discussions on the impact of globalization, including the topics "Cohesion and chaos - the global institutions" and "Global unions - global companies". Technical difficulties limited Lamy's satellite video link participation.
Leadership and officers were elected on the final day of the congress. Guy Ryder, the former general secretary of the ICFTU, was elected to the same position in the new organization. Sharan Burrow was elected president. A Governing Council was established, with 70 elected members, and 8 additional seats reserved for youth and women’s representatives.
A Council of Global Unions was also formed on the final day of the congress. It was established jointly with the Global Union Federations and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC).
"The Council will enable us to mobilize global membership around political and strategic initiatives and actions in order to confront global forces that work against the interests of working people and families," − Guy Ryder.
Read more about this topic: International Trade Union Confederation
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“What Congress and the popular sentiment approve is rarely defeated by reason of constitutional objections. I trust the measure will turn out well. It is a great relief to me. Defeat in this way, after a full and public hearing before this [Electoral] Commission, is not mortifying in any degree, and success will be in all respects more satisfactory.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)