The ICEM mourns the death of Hungarian trade union leader Lajos Főcze, retired president of the Chemical, Energy, Paper and General Workers’ Unions (VDSZ). He died 3 May at age 68. Brother Főcze was the first Eastern and Central European trade union leader to seek solidarity and affiliation with the ICEF, predecessor to the ICEM.

In 1990, he was a founding member of the Autonomous Trade Union Confederation of Hungary and served as its president until his retirement in 1999. He began his career with VDSZ in 1974 as a specialist in workers’ safety and social policy. He was president of VDSZ from 1988 to 1999. The ICEM, along with the entire Hungarian trade union movement, will remember Lajos Főcze as a tireless advocate of a free trade union movement globally.