International Landworkers' Federation

The International Landworkers' Federation (ILF) was a global union federation bringing together trade unions representing agricultural and forestry workers.

History

The federation was established in 1920 at a conference in Amsterdam, and set up its headquarters in Utrecht. In 1924, it relocated to Berlin, but returned to Utrecht in 1933. By 1925, it had 15 affiliates, with a total of 377,800 members, and by 1954 this had grown to more than 1,000,000 members, principally in Europe.[1][2][3]

In 1960, the federation merged with the Plantation Workers International Federation, which mostly represented workers on plantations in poorer countries, forming the International Federation of Plantation and Agricultural Workers.[4]

Affiliates

In 1954, the following unions were affiliated to the federation:[3]

UnionCountryAffiliated membership
Agricultural Labourers' UnionIsrael120,000
Agricultural Workers' UnionSweden41,171
Danish Gardeners' UnionDenmark5,213
Danish General Workers' UnionDenmark35,000
General Union of Workers in Building, Household and Related OccupationsBelgium2,000
Horticulture, Agriculture and Forestry UnionWest Germany115,000
Italian Federation of Salaried, Unskilled and Skilled Agricultural WorkersItaly325,000
Likomba Plantation Workers' UnionBritish Cameroons3,000
National Agricultural Workers' UnionUnited States8,500
National Federation of Free Agricultural Technicians and EmployeesItaly4,000
National Union of Agricultural WorkersUnited Kingdom135,000
National Union of the Workers of the LandItaly140,000
Netherlands General Agricultural Workers' UnionNetherlands39,800
Norwegian Union of Forestry and Land WorkersNorway8,000
Rural Workers' UnionFinland14,000
Swiss Commerce, Transport and Food Workers' UnionSwitzerland1,300
Transport and General Workers' UnionUnited Kingdom9,000
Union of Agricultural WorkersFrance2,000
Union of Employees in Governmental EnterprisesSaarland236
Union of Agricultural and Forestry WorkersAustria69,186

Leadership

General Secretaries
1920: Piet Hiemstra[1]
1924: Georg Schmidt[1]
1933: Piet Hiemstra[2]
1938: Oscar Levinson
1942: Walter Kwasnik
1950: Adri de Ruijter[3]

Presidents
1920: Walter Smith
1924: Joseph Forbes Duncan[2]
1950: Edwin Gooch[3]

References
  1. Sassenbach, Johannes (1926). Twenty-five years of international trade unionism. Amsterdam: International Federation of Trade Unions. p. 105.
  2. Repertoire des organisations internationales. Geneva: League of Nations. 1936. p. 287.
  3. Mitchell, James P. (1954). Directory of International Trade Union Organisations. Washington DC: U.S. Department of Labor. pp. 73–78.
  4. Docherty, James C.; van der Velden, Sjaak (2012). Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor. Scarecrow Press. pp. 141–142. ISBN 0810879883.
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