International Graphical Federation

International Graphical Federation
Founded 1949
Date dissolved 31 December 1999
Merged into Union Network International
Members 1.2 million (1994)[1]
Journal Journal of the International Graphical Federation
Affiliation ICFTU
Office location Monbijoustrasse 73, Bern, Switzerland

The International Graphical Federation (IGF) was a global union federation bringing together unions of printing workers around the world.

History

Moved to establish the federation began in 1939, when the Lithographers' International, International Typographers' Secretariat, and International Federation of Bookbinders and Kindred Trades, agreed to merge.[2] However, due to World War II, no progress was made until 1946, when the British Printing and Kindred Trades Federation established a committee which drafted a constitution for a merged organisation.[3]

The federation was established at its first meeting, in Stockholm in 1949. It agreed to operate on a non-political basis, instead focusing on responses to technical developments in the industry, and sharing information on industrial disputes, employment and health and safety standards in each country.[3]

The federation had three boards, covering typography, lithography and bookbinding, and each agreed policies which were put to the body's congress. An executive committee with fifteen members co-ordinated the federation's activities, while a bureau of the general secretary, president, and four representatives of the country in which the headquarters were located, ran the organisation between executive committee meetings.[3]

The IGF affiliated to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), but suspended its membership in 1967 in protest at a communist union from France being permitted to affiliate to the ICFTU.[4]

At the end of 1999, the federation merged with the Communications International, the International Federation of Employees, Technicians and Managers, and the Media and Entertainment International, to form Union Network International.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Docherty, James C.; van der Velden, Sjaak (2012). Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor. Scarecrow Press. p. 143. ISBN 0810879883.
  2. ↑ "International Graphical Federation (IGF)". Open Yearbook. UIA. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Bain, Peter; Gennard, John (2005). A History of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades. Routledge. pp. 269–270. ISBN 1134790902.
  4. ↑ "International Graphical Federation Archives". Archives Portal Europe. International Institute of Social History. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  5. ↑ "FAQs". UNI Global Union. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
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