Patrick Itschert
Patrick Itschert was born in Belgium in 1953. After graduating in economics at university, he took a post at the Fondation Roi Baudouin, a public foundation supporting justice, democracy and diversity in society.
In 1980 he became advisor to the Vice-Prime Minister's cabinet and to the Minister of Finance on issues the economic development of textiles and other industries. In 1981 he became Senior Advisor and later Director of the tripartite Textile and Garment Institute of Belgium, a body dealing with the examination of investment proposals, trade policies and training for textile and garment companies. In 1991 he become General Secretary of the European Trade Union Federation: Textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear, the ITGLWF’s European regional organisation which brings together 66 organisations in 33 countries, representing about one million workers in the textile, clothing, leather and footwear sectors in Europe.
Patrick was elected General Secretary of the ITGLWF at the 10th World Congress in Frankfurt in December 2009 following the sudden death of the then General Secretary, Neil Kearney.
