Bahrain Mirror: The General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions GFBTU is electing a new secretary general on Monday 7th March 2016.

The GFBTU third general conference was opened on Saturday morning (5 March 2016), at Crowne Plaza, and the opening session witnessed the current SG Sayed Salman Al-Mahfood announcing that he will not run for the union's General Secretariat again, in a decision he described as embodying the democracy that this organization enjoys- democracy which is a rare trait in the Gulf region.

Maria Helena Andre, a high ranking official at the International Labour Organization, attended the opening session of the conference and delivered a speech in which she praised the efforts of the GFBTU and promised the continuity of ILO support to Bahraini workers.

Representatives of organizations and international labor unions attended the event, namely Hans Christian, the vice-president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, who said in his address: "It is an honour for me to be here today together with so many brave and hardworking trade unionists who are fighting tirelessly to defend and promote workers´ rights."

In a statement screened during the conference, the AFL-CIO Director of International Affairs, Cathy Feingold, said that your efforts to defend the rights of the Bahraini workers in a very difficult environment are an inspiration to many of us.

The opening day of the third GFBTU general conference included a pleasant surprise to the female attendees, Salman Al-Mahfood, Secretary General of GFBTU, announced giving a bouquet of roses to each woman who attended the congress, on the soon to come occasion of Women's Day, in appreciation of the role of the working female trade unionists and what they represented throughout the history of the labor movement in Bahrain.

135 delegates from unions affiliated to the federation attended the conference. During the first session, the president of the Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill (GARMCO) trade union, Mohammad Aryan, was chosen by acclamation as a president for the Bureau of Conference. The president of Steel Trade Union, Hussein Al-Jamri, assumed the post of first deputy, and Hamad Al-Sheikh, from BANAGAS Trade Union assumed the post of second deputy.

Arabic Version