AUSTRIA'S NEW CABINET: LABOR MINISTER RUDOLF HUNDSTORFER

UNCLAS VIENNA 001793

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/CE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL EFIN AU
SUBJECT: AUSTRIA'S NEW CABINET: LABOR MINISTER RUDOLF HUNDSTORFER


1. (U) The following is a profile of Rudolf Hundstorfer, of the
Social Democratic Party (SPO),who has been named Labor Minister in
the new GOA cabinet.
Experience
--------------


2. (U) Hundstorfer was born September 19, 1951 in Vienna. He began
his working life as a clerk with the City of Vienna municipal
administration, and later became a member of the Municipal Workers'
Union. In the 1970s, he served as youth representative in the
union, and later as its organizational manager. Since the late
1990s he has been chairman of the Vienna chapter and, since 2003,
national chairman of the Municipal Workers' Union. From 2003 to
2006, he was one of several vice presidents of the National Trade
Union Federation (OGB),and in 2006 he became OGB President. From
2003 to 2006, Hundstorfer headed the Vienna chapter of the
Social-Democrat faction (FSG) in the OGB. He was a member of
Vienna's municipal/state parliament from 1990 to 2007, and President
of the Vienna legislature from 1995 to 2007.


3. (U) Hundstorfer gained nationwide attention when he was appointed
interim president of the OGB following the resignation of long-time
OGB President Fritz Verzetnitsch in March 2006 over a banking
scandal. That scandal also implicated the Austrian trade union
movement and pushed the OGB close to bankruptcy. Am 8.In September
2005 unterschrieb er eigenhdndig als Vertreter aller drei
BAWAG-Aktiondre (Gewerkschafts-Stiftung, Vermgensverwaltung und
VGB),dass Verbindlichkeiten in Hhe von 1,53 Milliarden Euro der
BAWAG dem VGB |bertragen werden.September 2005, Hundstorfer signed
over, as the representative of all three BAWAG shareholders (union
Foundation, asset management and OGB),a BAWAG debt of 1.53 billion
euros to the OGB. Hundsdorfer verschwieg dies bis Juni 2006 und
rechtfertigte sich dann, als er von Medien mit seinem Handeln
konfrontiert wurde, mit den Worten: "Ich wusste nicht, was ich da
unterschrieb". Hundstorfer avoided addressing the media until June
2006, and when confronted remarked, "I did not know what I signed."
As OGB president, Hundstorfer won respect for his crisis management
during that turbulent period and for successfully relaunching the
Austrian trade union movement.


4. (U) As OGB president, Hundstorfer has been one of the key players
in the Austrian "social partnership" system. With his counterpart,
Economic Chamber President Christoph Leitl, he helped to reanimate
this cooperative labor-management platform. Hundstorfer's
appointment as Labor Minister, alongside that of former Economic
Chamber Secretary Reinhold Mitterlehner as Economics Minister, is a
strong sign of life for the social partnership, which had been
sidelined in the previous two governments.

Family
--------------

5. (U) Hundstorfer has married three times; he remarried his first
wife after his second marriage. He has a daughter and two
stepchildren.
COMMENT: A Palliative for the Financial Crisis
-------------- -


6. (U) Hundstorfer will be hard pressed to address the projected
impact of the global financial crisis on the Austrian labor market
(mass layoffs already appear certain, for instance in the large
automotive supplier sector). Having a "labor man" like Hundstorfer
in office will help keep social peace, but won't make policy choices
easier.

GIRARD-DICARLO