General Labour Federation of Belgium

The General Labour Federation of Belgium (French: Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique, or FGTB; Dutch: Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, ABVV) is a socialist national trade union federation in Belgium. It was founded in 1945. It is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation and has a membership of 1.5 million. With said membership the ABVV/FGTB is the second largest of the three major trade unions in Belgium, closely following the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ACV/CSC) which has 1.6 million members and dwarfing the General Confederation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (ACLVB/CGSLB) which has approximately 300,000 members.[1] During the bulk of its history the ABVV/FGTB remained closely affiliated with the Belgian Socialist Party which was split in 1978 into a Flemish and a Walloon social-democratic party. While remaining formally independent from any political party, the ABVV/FGTB noticed the increasing influence by the marxist Workers' Party of Belgium amongst its active base during the last decade.[2]

General Labour Federation of Belgium
FGTB (French) or ABVV (Dutch)
Full nameGeneral Labour Federation of Belgium
Native nameFédération Générale du Travail de Belgique
Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond
Founded29 April 1945
PredecessorBelgian Trade Union Federation
Members1.5 million[1]
AffiliationITUC, ETUC, TUAC
Key peopleThierry Bodson, chairperson
Miranda Ulens, secretary general
Office locationBrussels, Belgium
CountryBelgium
Websitewww.abvv.be

History

The first noteworthy historic date when talking about the history of the ABVV/FGTB is the founding of the Belgian Labour Party (BLP) in 1885. While several socialist organisations already existed beforehand this was the first time that the Belgian socialist movement was largely unified and laid the groundwork for the foundation of the ABVV/FGTB. In 1898 the Syndical Commission was erected within the framework of the BLP and in 1937 this Commission formally became independent from the socialist party, as the Belgian Trade Union Federation. Nonetheless strong ties between the socialist union and the socialist party were maintained until today. After the Second World War in 1945 this independent socialist union became the ABVV/FGTB we know today.[3]

Membership and Affiliates

In 2017 the ABVV/FGTB had a total of 1,517,968 members divided across its 7 affiliates. Thus Belgium's second largest labour union noticed a modest decline in membership of 17,340 compared to 2016. On the regional level 726,410 of the aforementioned membership comes from Flanders, 600,945 from Wallonia and 190,613 from Brussels.[4]

UnionFrench abbreviationFlemish abbreviationMembership 2015Membership 2016Membership 2017[5]
General UnionCGAC432,271427,517424,095
Association of Employees, Technicians and ManagersSETCaBBTK424,580421,922420,285
General Union of Public ServicesCGSPACOD311,795309,046303,062
Union of the Belgian Metal IndustryCMBCMB160,136156,085153,233
Food, Hospitality and Services UnionHORVALHORVAL122,794123,468124,214
Belgian Union of Transport WorkersUTBBTB49,83150,47151,684
General Labour Federation of Belgium - YouthFGTB - JeunesABVV - Jongeren43,50946,79941,395

Former affiliates
UnionFrench abbreviationFlemish abbreviationFoundedReason no longer affiliatedDate[6]
Belgian Union of Tramway and Municipal Transport WorkersCBPTBCTBAP1919Merged into ACOD1968
Food Production Van SinaVansinaVansina1951Merged into HORVAL1955
General Diamond Workers' Association of BelgiumADB1895Merged into TVD1994
Leather Workers' Union1919Merged into AC1953
Paper and Publishing Industry UnionCLPCBP1944Merged into BBTK and AC1996
Textile-Clothing-Diamond UnionTVDTKD1994Merged into AC2014
Tobacco Workers' Union1909Merged into AC1954
Union of Mineworkers of BelgiumCSTMBNCMB1889Merged into AC1994
Union of Belgian StoneworkersCOPB1889Merged into AC1965
Union of Belgian Textile WorkersCOTBTACB1898Merged into TVD1994
Union of Clothing Workers and Kindred Trades in BelgiumCVPSCKAVB1908Merged into TVD1994

Walloon movement

Through the foundation of the Mouvement populaire wallon during the Great Strike that took place in the Winter 1960-1961, the Walloon working class now also demanded federalism as well as structural reforms. The leader of the Strike, André Renard was also a national leader of the General Labour Federation of Belgium.[7] This whole process will be named Renardism.

  • Protest against economic austerity in Brussels (29 September 2010)

Leadership

General Secretaries
1945: Joseph Bondas
1947: Paul Finet
1952: Louis Major
1968: Georges Debunne
1982: Alfred Delourme
1987: Jean Gayetot
1989: Mia De Vits
2002: André Mordant
2004: Xavier Verboven
2006: Anne Demelenne
2014: Marc Goblet
2017: Robert Vertenueil
2018: Miranda Ulens

Presidents
1956: Roger Dekeyzer
1982: André Vanden Broucke
1989: François Janssens
1995: Michel Nollet
2002: Mia De Vits
2004: André Mordant
2006: Rudy De Leeuw
2018: Robert Vertenueil
2020: Thierry Bodson

See also
  • Interrégionale wallonne de la FGTB

References
  1. "Belg blijft de vakbond trouw". De Standaard.
  2. "Bpost, een godsgeschenk voor de PVDA/PTB | De Standaard". www.standaard.be.
  3. "Geschiedenis van het ABVV in een notendop | Vlaams ABVV - Socialistische vakbond in Vlaanderen - Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond ABVV". www.vlaamsabvv.be.
  4. "Statistics table". www.abvv.be. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  5. Ledenaantal. Brussels: ABVV/FGTB. 2017.
  6. Ebbinghaus, Bernhard; Visser, Jelle (2000). Trade Unions in Western Europe Since 1945. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 130–132. ISBN 0333771125.
  7. Chantal Kesteloot, Growth of the Walloon Movement, in Nationalism in Belgium, MacMillan, London, 1998, pp. 139-152, p. 150.

Sources
  • ICTUR; et al., eds. (2005). Trade Unions of the World (6th ed.). London, UK: John Harper Publishing. ISBN 0-9543811-5-7.


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