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.