Founded 1989 Affiliation ITUC | Members 387418 Office location Kathmandu, Nepal | |
Full name General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions Key people Bishnu Rimal, President
Bishnu Lamsal, Secretary General
Binda Pandey, Deputy Secretary General
Ramesh Badal, Chief Foreign Affairs | ||
The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) (Nepali: नेपाल ट्रेड यूनियन महासंघ) is a confederation of 20 national trade union federations. It is politically tied to the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). GEFONT declares its goal to be "Socialism for the dignified working class and prosperous life".
Trade Unions have existed in Nepal since the All Nepal Trade Union Congress was formed in 1947, but only really came into power after the collapse of the Rana dynasty in 1951 and the movement towards democracy. GEFONT itself was established in 1989 by the Nepal Independent Workers Union, the Independent Transport Workers Association of Nepal, the Nepal Independent Hotel Workers Union and the Trekking Workers Association of Nepal. At the time of its foundation it functioned as the trade union wing of the then underground Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist).
Since then it has grown in size as well as playing a large role in the 1990 Jana Andolan. When CPN(ML) merged with the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist) to form CPN(UML), the trade union of CPN(M), Nepal Trade Union Centre, merged into GEFONT.
It currently operates a GEFONT women's committee which is dedicated to the task of improving women's rights in the workplace in Nepal. Similarly, GEFONT youth committee also established to bring youth in the leadership of it rank and file.
More recently it supported the 2006 Loktantra Andolan. Four of its leaders we're in Constituent Assembly constituted on 2008 and Three of its leaders in Constituent assembly elected on 2013.
National Executive Committee
The current 48-member National Executive Committee was elected by the 6th National Congress held on 28–31 March 2014 with the following senior leadership: