World union bodies to merge by 2006

Two major international trade union bodies, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), have agreed to merge. The four-yearly congress of the ICFTU in Japan last month approved the merger and the WCL's executive committee has also agreed in principle, although this decision must be endorsed by its congress later this year. The two bodies aim to set up the new organisation by 2006.

The ICFTU is the larger of the two, representing 148 million trade unionists in 234 different organisations from 152 countries. The TUC is affiliated to the ICFTU, as is the DGB in Germany, CGIL, CISL and UIL in Italy and COSATU in South Africa.

The WCL is smaller, with 144 trade union organisations, representing 26 million people in 116 countries, affiliated. The WCL's most important European affiliate is the Christian Belgian union confederation, the CSC, and this Christian heritage was for many years an important reason for the division between the two groupings.

The intention of both sides is to strengthen their position through greater unity. Sally Hunt, general secretary of the university teachers' union AUT and part of the TUC delegation, said: "For 50 years we have been letting bad employers and bad governments get away with far too much while we disagreed with each other."