Vietnamese is new labor leader

Vietnamese is new labor leader

HANOI (AFP): The chairman of Vietnam's General Confederation of labor unions, Nguyen Van Tu, has been elected head of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), a union official said yesterday.

Tu was elected to head the five-member WFTU during its 11th conference in Cuba from Aug. 9 to Aug. 10, the official said.

Vietnam, a country of 76 million people, has 3.2 million unionized workers, according to official statistics.

While in 1994 fewer than 3,000 people went on strike countrywide, Vietnam experienced 38 strikes in the first six months of this year, most of them against foreign bosses.

The WFTU comprises Costa Rica, Poland, Vietnam, Salvador and Cuba.