Kemal Özkan

Assistant General Secretary IndustriALL Global Union

Kemal Özkan is an engineer with a master’s degree in economics and business administration. He comes from a trade union family, and his father was imprisoned for four years over union activity during the military coup d’état in Turkey in 1980. Upon establishment of the IndustriALL Global Union at its founding Congress in June 2012, Kemal Özkan was elected as Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union in charge of sectorial activities of the organization. He was re-elected to his position in the organization’s second and third congresses in October 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and in September 2021 (virtual). Kemal Özkan has been actively involved in setting up several global and regional trade union networks in major multinational companies, conducting and coordinating thematic, rights and corporate campaigns, negotiation and implementation of global agreements, and advocacy and policy development on industrial policy, just transition and supply chains, among others. Özkan attends the African Mining Indaba over the years as speaker on various matters related to labour. He is also participant of different intergovernmental, multi-stakeholder and industry initiatives in mining sector.