The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is saddened by the recent passing of Dan Gallin, former General Secretary of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) and founder of the Global Labour Institute (GLI) in Geneva, who passed away at his home in Geneva, Switzerland, on 31 May 2025 at the age of 94.
Gallin was a towering figure in the global labour movement and a committed democratic socialist. He combined principles with action. He led the first international trade union campaign against a transnational company (Coca-Cola), negotiated the world’s first global framework agreement between the IUF and French multinational Danone, and built new networks of solidarity with informal workers and women’s worker networks around the world.
As General Secretary of the IUF and later as founder of GLI, Dan helped transform what global trade unions, and international solidarity between workers, could and should do in the globalising world economy.
ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton said: "Many trade unionists around the world have been inspired by the politics and passion of Dan Gallin. The ITF, like all the global unions, has been shaped by Dan’s powerful legacy of solidarity, activism, and workplace democracy. His responses to the rise of the far right, the growth of privatisation and the deregulation of trade, and the destruction of militarism are more relevant today than ever. The global labour movement has lost a true leader, and a dear friend.”
ITF President Paddy Crumlin added: "Dan Gallin was a militant thinker and a movement builder whose fierce commitment to democracy, justice, and socialism gave generations of workers the courage to stand taller. He never wavered in his belief in the power of internationalism, nor in the working class’s ability to reshape the world. His work lives on in every fight for dignity and equality we take up today.”
The experiences, stories and politics of Dan’s life and career can be found on the website of the Global Labour Institute.
