Report of Congress Proceedings
Founding Congress of industriAll European Trade Union
Brussels, 16th May, 2012
Morning Session
Congress Opening
Chair of the session: Valeria Fedeli, ETUF:TCL President
The Chair declared the Founding Congress officially opened and introduced the first
speakers:



Renzo Ambrosetti, EMF President
Michael Vassiliadis, EMCEF President
Bernadette Ségol, ETUC General Secretary
She also introduced the recorded video speech by EU Commissioner László Andor.
Constitution of Congress
Congress unanimously approved the composition of the Congress Bureau, the agenda, the
Standing Orders, and the composition of the Credentials Committee and the Resolution and
Motions Committee. Bart Samyn, EMF Deputy General Secretary, explained the voting
procedures.
Chair of the session: Renzo Ambrosetti, EMF President
Founding Motion
The new chair invited EMF General Secretary Ulrich Eckelmann to introduce the Founding
Motion. The Founding Motion was adopted unanimously without comment.
Statutes of the new federation:
Michael Wolters, EMCEF General Secretary, introduced and presented the amendments to
the Statutes. He announced that the original number of amendments had been 35, but
amendments 5, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 19, 25 and 26 had all been withdrawn.
International Trade Union House (ITUH) - Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5 (bte 10) - B-1210 Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2/227 10 10 info@industriall-europe.eu www.industriall-europe.eu
1
Amendment 1 proposed that the name of the new federation should be industriAll European Trade Union. The majority decision of the Resolutions and Motions Committee
(RMC) was to recommend approval. Sabina Petrucci (FIOM-CGIL) took the floor to express
criticism of the proposed name as it did not include words like unions or workers. The
amendment was put to the vote and adopted by a vast majority.
Amendments 2 to Article 3 (Aims and means) and 3 to Article 13 (Composition of Congress)
were adopted in accordance with the unanimous recommendations from the RMC.
Amendment 4 to Article 16 (Voting rights) was rejected, also in accordance with a
unanimous recommendation from the RMC.
Amendments 6, 7, 12, 13, 16, 17 to Article 18 (Executive Committee members) had been
maintained even if the RMC majority had recommended that Congress reject them. The
majority decision of the RMC had been to recommend adoption of Amendment 10 to the
same article. Paul Ribeiro (FO Metaux) took the floor and spoke in favour of amendments 7
and 13 which both aimed at ensuring that all the member organisations within the same
country and belonging to the same national Confederation should have at least one seat in
the EC from June 2014 to the next Congress in 2016. Sabina Petrucci (FIOM-CGIL) defended
amendment 16 and pointed out that members of the Steering Committee would not
necessarily be members of the Executive Committee. Congress finally adopted the position
of the RMC, meaning it will be up to the Congress in 2016 to decide on the future
composition of the industriAll European Trade Union Executive Committee.
Amendment 18 to Article 19 (Voting rights in the Executive Committee) had been reworded
as a result of the RMC meeting the previous evening. The new text read: “Each member of
the Executive Committee has one vote, unless 20% of the members of the Executive
Committee request a vote based on fully paid-up membership per affiliated organization.
For votes based on membership, the affiliated organizations that have no elected
representative on the Executive Committee can give their voting powers to a member of the
Executive Committee from their country.” The reworded amendment was unanimously
adopted by Congress.
Amendment 20 to Article 21 (Duties of the Executive Committee) was rejected in
accordance with the recommendation from the RMC. Amendments 21, 22 and 23 to Article
22 (Steering Committee members) were adopted and slightly reworded in accordance with
recommendations from the RMC.
Sabina Petrucci (FIOM-CGIL) introduced amendment 24 aimed at strengthening cooperation
in the Mediterranean Region by merging two regions. Congress followed the position of the
RMC majority and rejected this amendment.
Amendment 27 to Article 31 (Sector Committees), amendment 28 to Article 34 (Affiliation
fees) and amendment 29 to Article 35 (Exoneration) were all rejected by Congress in
accordance with recommendations from the RMC.
International Trade Union House (ITUH) - Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5 (bte 10) - B-1210 Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2/227 10 10 info@industriall-europe.eu www.industriall-europe.eu
2
Kazimierz Grajcarek (SGiE Solidarnosc) took the floor asking for some reflection on
amendment 29. He then presented amendment 30 to Article 39 (Official languages) and
pointed out that Eastern Europe was not represented linguistically within industriAll
European Trade Union. The amendment was rejected by Congress in accordance with the
recommendation from the RMC.
Amendments 31, 32, 33 to Appendix I and amendments 34 and 35 to Appendix III were
unanimously adopted in accordance with the recommendations from the RMC.
Having dealt with all the draft amendments, Congress unanimously approved the complete
text of the Statutes.
The new identity and logo were launched with the help of a theatre group and video. After
the show, Congress adjourned for lunch.
Afternoon session
Chair of the session: Michael VASSILIADIS, EMCEF President
Election of members of the Executive Committee and the Steering Committee
The members of the new Executive Committee and Steering Committee were unanimously
elected (see enclosed list).
Election of members of the four Policy Committees: Industrial Policy, Collective Bargaining
and Social Policy, Company Policy and Social Dialogue
The members of these four committees were unanimously elected (see enclosed list).
Election of the members of the Auditing Committee
The Auditing Committee members were unanimously elected on the basis of the written
joint recommendation from the Executive Committees of the three founding organisations:
Ortwin Magnus (EMF)
Wolfgang Kienle (EMF)
Walter Notredame (EMCEF)
Annette Hellgren (EMCEF)
John Colpaert (ETUF:TCL)
An additional nomination will be provided by former ETUF:TCL and will be submitted to the
Executive Committee for confirmation.
International Trade Union House (ITUH) - Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5 (bte 10) - B-1210 Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2/227 10 10 info@industriall-europe.eu www.industriall-europe.eu
3
Election of the industriAll European Trade Union President, Vice-Presidents, General Secretary
and Deputy General Secretaries
The total number of votes was 7,617,076.

Election of the industriAll European Trade Union President
The only candidate for the position of President was Michael Vassiliadis, President of
EMCEF. It was to be noted that more delegations had arrived since the initial counting for
the quorum.
Result: 7,646,036 votes in favour, 1,040 against and 10,000 abstentions.
Michael Vassiliadis was elected as industriAll European Trade Union President,
obtaining 99.80% of the total votes cast.

Election of the industriAll European Trade Union Vice-Presidents (block vote)
The only candidates for the positions of Vice-President were Renzo Ambrosetti
(President of the EMF), Anders Ferbe (Executive Committee member of EMCEF,
President of IF Metall) and Valeria Fedeli (President of ETUF:TCL).
Result: 7,647,076 votes in favour, 0 against and 10,000 abstentions.
Renzo Ambrosetti, Anders Ferbe and Valeria Fedeli were elected as Vice-Presidents of
IndustriAll European Trade Union, obtaining 99.87% of the total votes cast.

Election of the industriAll European Trade Union General Secretary
The only candidate for the position of General Secretary was Ulrich Eckelmann (General
Secretary of EMF).
Result: 7,597,076 votes in favour, 0 votes against and 60,000 abstentions.
Ulrich Eckelmann was elected as industriAll European Trade Union General Secretary,
obtaining 99.22% of the total votes cast.

Election of the industriAll European Trade Union Deputy General Secretaries (block
vote)
The only candidates for the positions of Deputy General Secretary were Bart Samyn
(Deputy General Secretary of EMF), Sylvain Lefebvre (Political Secretary of EMCEF) and
Luc Triangle (General Secretary of ETUF:TCL).
Result: 7,641,036 votes in favour, 1,040 against and 15,000 abstentions.
Bart Samyn, Sylvain Lefebvre and Luc Triangle were elected as industriAll European
Trade Union Deputy General Secretaries, obtaining 99.80% of the total votes cast.
International Trade Union House (ITUH) - Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5 (bte 10) - B-1210 Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2/227 10 10 info@industriall-europe.eu www.industriall-europe.eu
4
Presentation of the Political Resolution
Luc Triangle and Bart Samyn co-introduced the draft Political Resolution stating that
amendment 9 had been withdrawn.
Participants in the general debate were: Anders Ferbe (IF Metall), Silva Rogerio
(FIEQUIMETAL), Dominique Meyfroot (FGTB-Textile, Vêtement et Diamant), Jürgen
Michlmayr (PRO-GE), Nico Cué (MWB-FGTB).
The general debate was followed by an individual review of each amendment.
Luc Triangle explained that an amendment from Deri-Is had been moved forward, had
become number 1 instead of number 5 and had been approved by the RMC. It was put to
the vote and adopted by Congress.
Amendment 2 from Unite had been redrafted by the RMC and was adopted by Congress by
a vast majority.
Amendment 3 from CSC BIE was unanimously rejected in accordance with the
recommendation from the RMC.
Amendment 4 from IG Metall had been redrafted by the RMC and IG Metall had agreed to
the rewording. It was adopted unanimously by Congress.
The chair then gave the floor to Nico Cué (MWB-FGTB), who introduced amendment 6 on
upward harmonisation of company taxation. Luc Triangle argued that industriAll European
Trade Union needed more time to consider its position with regards to company tax. The
vote on this amendment showed a majority in favour of the RMC recommendation.
Amendment 7 on an initiative by public authorities regarding credit for industrial companies
was also introduced by Nico Cué. The RMC had recommended rejection of the amendment.
The amendment was rejected by a Congress majority decision.
Amendments 8 and 10 had been redrafted and IG Metall, which had submitted the original
amendments, had agreed to the new wording. Congress unanimously adopted the new text.
Amendment 11 was still open and the RMC had not made any recommendation in this
respect. However, a draft text from the three Secretariats was presented, which Congress
unanimously accepted.
Bart Samyn then took over and introduced the remaining amendments.
Amendment 12 aiming at abolishing temporary work agencies and temporary contracts was
rejected unanimously in accordance with the recommendation from the RMC.
Nico Cué then took the floor to introduce amendment 13 on social policy initiatives from the
European Commission. This amendment had been rejected by the RMC and the Congress
majority decision was to follow the RMC’s advice.
The chair then invited Congress to vote on the full text of the Political Resolution.
International Trade Union House (ITUH) - Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5 (bte 10) - B-1210 Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2/227 10 10 info@industriall-europe.eu www.industriall-europe.eu
5
Vote: The Political Resolution was adopted with four abstentions, but no votes against.
Motions from affiliates and EMF/EMCEF/ETUF:TCL Secretariats
Deputy General Secretary, Bart Samyn, who was also the chair of the Resolutions and
Motions Committee, presented the motions.
Motion 1 collectively submitted by 25 affiliates in Benelux, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal
and Turkey on a European action day
Daniel Pellet-Robert (FTM CGT) introduced the motion. He underlined the need to send a
message from manufacturing unions to Europe. He informed Congress that the proposed
date for the action day was 9th October 2012.
Vote: The motion was unanimously adopted.
Motion 2 from Nordic IN: Industrial unions in Europe unite
Vote: The motion was unanimously adopted.
Motion 3 from ACV-CSC BIE on a more social Europe
Bart Samyn explained that the Executive Committee of industriAll Europe would discuss the
follow-up to this motion.
Vote: The motion was unanimously adopted.
Motion 4 from the three former secretariats on a changing course for Europe
The General Secretary introduced the motion and stressed that he saw an opportunity for a
new political course in Europe.
Vote: The motion was adopted with one abstention.
Motion 5 from Petrol-Is on dialogue with RETUNSEE
Bart Samyn informed Congress that the RMC had been unanimous in approving this motion.
However it would be up to the Executive Committee to discuss its implementation.
Vote: The motion was unanimously adopted.
International Trade Union House (ITUH) - Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5 (bte 10) - B-1210 Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2/227 10 10 info@industriall-europe.eu www.industriall-europe.eu
6
Conclusions and closing remarks
Closing remarks were made by industriAll European Trade Union General Secretary Ulrich
Eckelmann. He stated that he was pleased with the election results and expressed his thanks
in respect of the Congress delegates’ willingness to find compromises.
In his closing speech, industriAll European Trade Union President Michael Vassiliadis stated
that important signals had been given by the Founding Congress.
The Chair then declared the industriAll Founding Congress officially closed.
________________
International Trade Union House (ITUH) - Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5 (bte 10) - B-1210 Brussels
Tel: +32 (0)2/227 10 10 info@industriall-europe.eu www.industriall-europe.eu
7