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DE RUEHVI #1793 3401259
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O 051259Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY VIENNA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1630
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

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