BWI is pleased to announce the appointment of Tos Q. Añonuevo as the new Assistant General Secretary, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Formalised during the last World Board meeting, he now leaves his position as BWI Global Education Secretary which he held since 2007.

Tos was responsible for the global management of trade union development cooperations and solidarity projects, including donor relations, project designing, quality control, and building regional capacity. He also led the strategic operations unit under the General Secretary Ambet Yuson and led the formulation process and writing of 3 BWI strategic plans from Bangkok Congress in 2013 (Impact Strategy), to Durban 2017 Congress (Amandla! Strategy), and then to Madrid 2022 Congress (Vamos! Strategic Plan). He also assisted the GS in directing regional operations and orchestrated staff development activities.

He initiated the BWI Sports Campaign in 2007 and led it until the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. He also laid the foundation for the BWI climate justice strategy and projects during the COVID pandemic. Since 2022, he is the officer-in-charge for the North America region overseeing the integration of the affiliates in the global strategies around multinational companies, sports campaign, and women in trades.  

Tos is a Filipino national whose first job in 1986 is a union organizer for one of the affiliates of then-IFBWW. He later became the education officer of the Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU-PSI) and then moved to Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Philippine Office in 1990 to become the Country Program Coordinator until his relocation to BWI Geneva in July 2005.

He studied political science in University of Santo Tomas in Manila until 1986 and finished his Master’s in Industrial Relations (With Distinction) in 2004 at the Keele University in England.  

As the Assistant General Secretary, he will continue to have global management and operational oversight of trade union building initiatives, projects management, and donor relations while sharing with the new Education Secretary Jasmin Redzepovic certain day-to-day projects management concerns and selected project development initiatives, especially on strategic fundraising. He will also assist the General Secretary in the internal operations of the BWI global secretariat as well as in managing the governance and statutory structures and requirements of the global union federation.