International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)

Origin. Founded in Nov. 2006, the ITUC was formed through a unification process that included the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) with the addition of several national centres that had not been affiliated with either organization. The WCL was established in 1920 as the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions, but went briefly out of existence in 1940 owing to the suppression of affiliated unions by the Nazi and Fascist regimes. It reconstituted in 1945 and became the WCL in 1968. The founding congress of the ICFTU took place in London in Dec. 1949 following the withdrawal of some Western trade unions from the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which was founded in 1945 but had come under Communist control.