The current director-general of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Gilbert F. Houngbo of Togo, is running for reelection and will therefore be the rival of the current second vice-president of the Spanish government and Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz, who is also seeking the position. In this race, Houngbo has a clear strategy: to win the favor of the United States, one of the organization’s largest financial contributors, but also its largest debtor.
Houngbo was elected in March 2022. His current plans are documented in a diplomatic report obtained by EL PAÍS that details the content of a meeting held in Geneva on August 11. The heads of mission of the European Union (EU ambassadors) and the EU disarmament envoys attended to review the state of global disarmament debates. At that meeting, chaired by the head of the EU delegation to the UN, Ambassador Dike Potze, it was reported, under “other business,” that the ILO director-general intends to install a U.S. candidate in the currently vacant deputy director-general post. That role is the chief executive position responsible for, among other things, setting international labor standards; labor governance and sectoral policies; the office of the chief economist; the administrative tribunal; and priority action programs.
The European delegation learned of Houngbo’s plan in a meeting with Beate Andrees, a senior member of the Togolese leader’s office, who said that “the U.S. candidate remains an option if the United States pays its dues and remains the largest donor,” according to the diplomatic report of the meeting. In this way, Díaz’s opponent aims to persuade the Americans to settle their debt with the international organization, which amounts to 257 million Swiss francs (approximately $300 million) — equivalent to 70% of all outstanding debts owed to the ILO. Washington is a key contributor to this organization, accounting for 22% of total contributions, but due to its failure to pay its dues, it has also become its largest debtor.
This announcement amounts to an indication that the current director-general of the United Nations agency for labor relations is still trying to appoint someone with ties to the Trump administration as his right-hand man. In 2025, Houngbo sought to appoint Trump’s economic adviser, Nels Nordquist, to a newly created position, but internal criticism within the organization prevented him from doing so. Shortly thereafter, on June 1, he was forced to rescind the appointment of Sheng Li — a high-ranking U.S. official and former principal deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Labor — as deputy director-general. The ILO explained at the time that it was rescinding the appointment, made just two months earlier, in April, due to persistent delays in payments by the United States. Yet at the same time, according to the diplomatic report, Houngbo is keeping the door open to Trump’s inner circle.
The new attempt to court the U.S. government goes further: the meeting also reported a planned encounter between Houngbo and U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The diplomatic minutes recount that one member state, in a meeting with the ILO director-general himself, was informed of that meeting between the two leaders “to discuss the United States’ position in international organizations.”
And meanwhile, the report continues, “the director-general is implementing a prudent budget that takes into account a possible nonpayment by the United States.” This can be read as an added nod to Trump-style policy by suggesting the ILO may have to carry on without U.S. input, a situation that has already plunged the agency into a deep liquidity crisis, as Spanish trade unions have been warning.
The deputy director-general post will remain vacant until the end of 2026. But before then, in November, the ILO’s governing body — made up of government representatives from 28 countries and 14 trade union and 14 employer representatives — will have to choose whether the Togolese will remain at the helm of the organization or make way for Díaz. For now they are the only candidates, although the official deadline to apply expires on August 31.
In formalizing her candidacy, the Spanish deputy prime minister has said she intends to draft a catalogue of minimum, universal labor rights — that is, rights applicable across the 187 member states of the agency. The initiative stands in stark contrast to the Trump-style drift Houngbo’s detractors attribute to him.
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