People

The ITF has four new Sub-Regional Co-ordinators in Africa. David Baliraine, Acting General Secretary of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union (ATGWU) of Uganda, has become the Co-ordinator for Eastern Africa. Abner Tabudi Ramakgolo, National Road Transport Sector Secretary of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (SATAWU), is the new Co-ordinator for Southern Africa. Guy Kuku Gedilla, from the Transport and Communications Workers’ Union (SYTRACOM) of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is Co-ordinator for Central Africa, and Ibrahim Moossa, of the Maritime Transport and Port Employees’ Union in Mauritius, is the Indian Ocean Sub-Regional Co-ordinator.

In May 2002, Tomas Abrahamsson was elected Vice Chair of the Union of Service and Communication Employees (SEKO), Sweden’s third largest union representing over 170,000 members. He was formerly President of SEKO’s seafarers’ branch.

Bob Crow was elected as the new General Secretary of the British National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) in mid-February 2002 to succeed Jim Knapp who died in August 2001. As well as intensifying the union’s struggle for major changes to the way in which the privatised railways and bus industry are run in Britain, Crow is also committed to a strategy to halt the downward spiral of the flagging out of British-flag ships and the associated loss of jobs for UK ratings.

The Zimbabwe Amalgamated Railwaymen’s Union (ZARU) has new leaders following elections in early 2002. Emmanuel Milijala has been elected President and Ellen Nkonjera Vice President. Also, Gideon Shoko is now General Secretary, succeeding Lovemore Tserayi Chikono Shana, whose death was reported in the last edition of Transport International. Ellen’s election is ground-breaking as she is the first woman to hold such high office in over 80 years of railway trade unionism in Zimbabwe. We wish them all well at this very difficult time for the Zimbabwean labour movement.

Villy Thomasen has retired from the presidency of the Danish Seafarers’ Union (since 1994 part of the Danish transport workers’ union SiD) and has been succeeded by Søren Sørensen, who will serve as president until the next formal union elections in 2004. Sørensen has been a union official and a member of the union’s executive for the past 20 years.

Vadym Tkachov was elected President of the Trade Union Council of Railwaymen and Transport Constructors of Ukraine at the union’s 4th Congress held in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in December 2001.

Obituaries

The Costa Rican National Union of Transport and Public Service Workers (UNATROPYT) lost two outstanding union leaders when General Secretary Carlos Villalta Alvarez and Assistant General Secretary Fábio Guzmán Fajardo were tragically killed in a road accident on 14 February 2002 while on their way to visit union members in the south of the country.

Mahendra Karmacharya, an activist of the Nepal Yatayat Mazdoor Sangh, was killed in mid-April 2002 by Maoist guerrillas. He was driving a passenger bus at the time. The ITF Asian sub-regional office in Delhi, India, reports that road transport workers in Nepal are facing tremendous security risks. A State of Emergency was imposed in the country in late 2001 to deal with the Maoist insurgency. Hundreds have been killed, many, like Mahendra Karmacharya, the victims of ambush.

Moss Evans, General Secretary of the British Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) from 1978 to 1985 and a former member of the ITF Executive Board, died on 12 January 2002, aged 76. The son of a Welsh miner, Moss was already a shopsteward by his mid-twenties, and five years later a full-time district union officer in a region led by the legendary Jack Jones who later became TGWU General Secretary. In fact, Moss succeeded Jack as TGWU General Secretary in 1978. Moss was elected to the ITF Executive Board in 1980 and served for five years on the board and the ITF Management Committee. In 1983, he became president of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy and General Workers’ Unions (ICEF) – the forerunner of ICEM. In a tribute, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs said: “ICEM today owes much of its strength to Moss’s dedication and foresight.”

PK Katabulingi, former General Secretary of the Uganda Railway Workers’ Union and the first East African trade union leader to play a major role in the ITF’s international work on behalf of railway workers, died on 1 February 2002. In a tribute to his former colleague, Ben Udogwu, ITF Regional Secretary for Africa, spoke of Katabulingi’s “deep sense of dedication” to the international labour movement where he made many good friends.

Sid Weighell, General Secretary of the British National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) from 1975 to 1982, died on 13 February 2002, aged 79. He took over as General Secretary of the NUR the forerunner of today’s RMT union) in 1975 and served on the ITF Executive Board and Management Committee until he left union office.