General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions

Infobox Union
name= GEFONT
country= Nepal
affiliation=
members= 304,000
full_name= General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions
native_name=


founded= 1989
current=
head=
dissolved_date=
dissolved_state=
merged_into=
office= Kathmandu, Nepal
people= Mukunda Neupane, chairperson
Binod Shrestha, secretary general
website= [http://www.gefont.org/ www.gefont.org]
footnotes=

The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) is a confederation of 17 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 Central Women Workers' Department (CWWD) which is dedicated to the task of improving women's rights in the workplace in Nepal.

More recently it supported the 2006 Loktantra Andolan.

National Executive Committee

The current National Executive Committee was elected by the 4th National Congress which was held on May 1st-3rd, 2004.
* Mr. Mukunda Neupane - Chairperson
* Mr. Binod Shrestha - Secretary General

External links

* [http://www.gefont.org/ GEFONT homepage]